


The Shadows: Book 1

by J5V



Series: The Shadows [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Boy-Who-Lived Family relations, Dark Family History?, Gen, Hufflepuff, Hufflepuff OC, Original Female Character? - Freeform, Philosopher's Stone, american at hogwarts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-27
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-18 23:15:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 26,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29741376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/J5V/pseuds/J5V
Summary: Harry Potter is the hero of the wizarding world. He has defeated Voldemort as a baby, though at the cost of his parents. Years have passed, and Harry has been growing up with his aunt and uncle, unaware they are not his only remaining family.Growing up across the ocean in America, another young boy is living with his aunt and uncle. Similar to Harry in many ways, this boy's life changes when he must move to England to attend Hogwarts.Determined to become someone, this boy will play a large role in the events of Harry's time at Hogwarts. And the shadows hide not only the Potter family's dark past, but also a mysterious figure pulling the strings.Welcome to a new perspective of the events at Hogwarts.
Series: The Shadows [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2185902
Comments: 1





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Some events may be different or occur at different times than in the original books.

For as long as he could remember, Malik Pritchard had always been different. A tall, thin boy, with hazel brown eyes and black hair, he looked rather serious. As a young child he was never interested in toys, preferring instead to read books about advanced topics such as economics and politics. He had no parents, both of them having been killed in a car crash when he was just a baby, instead he lived with his aunt and uncle. They were decent people, they provided him with food and a roof over his head, and generally treated him well. However, he was clearly different from his cousin, Wardell, and as such his aunt and uncle did tend to favor their son over him. Wardell was a bit on the chubby side, with short blonde hair and small blue eyes. Despite his size, he was actually quite good at sports, one of the best in school, in fact. Despite their favoritism, Malik quite liked his aunt and uncle. Malik also had no real problem with Wardell, they got along about as well as two young boys being raised in the same household could. They had some disagreements and fights, but nothing of real consequence. All in all, Malik had a good life at home.

At school Malik generated rather good grades, however he made sure not to draw too much attention to this fact. He was a very humble person, and he had also learned early on that drawing too much attention to himself made him a target. As such, he was known to be rather intelligent, but not on the level of being weird enough to be picked on. He did not play any sports, despite being fairly athletic, as he found them to be a waste of time. Instead, he focused on how to make money; and early on, he figured out he could make a lot of it off his classmates.

Given his interest in economics and the awful quality of the lunches provided at school, he had determined that he could make a fortune providing a better product. Using birthday money, he had saved over the years, Malik bought a couple of panini makers and began to make fresh sandwiches for his classmates daily. At first it was slow going, as little kids don’t really know what paninis are, however, after a couple kids tried it, he began to build a loyal customer base. Within a few weeks, he had begun to turn a profit.

Using the business and his newfound profits, Malik drew a small group of friends and followers around him, for protection and to increase the size of his operations. By his second year of school, he was providing lunch for half the student body ever single day.

Naturally, competitors began to pop up, and the school administrators were not happy with losing profit, but Malik was crafty. Through a combination of intimidation and bribery he was able to not only eliminate all of his competitors, but he was also able to expand his operations to profit off of every student by his third year. While his classmates were worried about how to do arithmetic, Malik was figuring out how much he could raise his prices to maximize his profits as well as which foods were the most popular with everyone in the school. He was just on a different level than anyone else, and he knew it too. On his last day at elementary school, as he carefully detailed all his calculations and models to his successor, he could tell the kid would never be able to continue the business at the level he had built it. While he was disappointed, ultimately, he did not care that much, as it was the last day of school, and he was just about the richest 10-year-old around. All in all, he had made about three hundred thousand dollars in profit from his time at elementary school. He had big plans for that money, and he couldn’t wait to get home and start putting together the outlines for how he would use that money to create a new business then next school term at his new middle school.

After saying goodbye to his group of friends, most of whom would be joining him in middle school next year, he began the long walk home with Wardell.

“Hey Malik, Mom said she wanted to talk with you when we got home from school today” said Wardell.

“Really, what about?” asked Malik.

“Not sure, she just said she had something very important to discuss with you, and that you need to find her as soon as you get home.”

“Huh… guess we’ll find out when we get home then” shrugged Malik.

While he was a bit curious, he really just wanted to focus on his ideas for the next year. He had heard that middle school was a different beast than elementary school, and he was anxious to start putting together a plan to protect himself and earn more profit. Despite what Wardell had said, he was sure whatever his aunt wanted to talk to him about would be nothing of consequence.


	2. Chapter 2

As he walked through the kitchen, Malik spotted his aunt. Daisy Miller was a short, attractive woman, with long blonde hair and large brown eyes. A former gymnast, she was very small yet still in very good shape.

“Hey Auntie, what did you want to talk to me about?” asked Malik. Daisy glanced up from the stove and said,

“Good to see you sweety, we need to talk with your uncle when he gets home from work. It has to do with your living arrangements and your parents’ wishes.”

“Woah are you guys kicking me out!?”

“No sweety nothing like that, we just need to have a conversation about where you are going to attend school next year… and about some other things” Daisy assured him.

“What other things? What are you talking about!?”

“We really should wait for your uncle to talk about this sweety. Please I promise you we aren’t kicking you out, and we’ll explain everything to you tonight when your uncle gets home.”

“Okay. I guess I’ll just be in my room until then” Malik mumbled. He was numb with disbelief. How could they kick him out? How could they leave him with no place to go? He couldn’t survive by himself, furthermore he liked where he lived. He liked his aunt and uncle and even Wardell wasn’t that bad. He didn’t want to be all alone all of a sudden.

As he sat in his room and tried to put together his plan for his next business in middle school, he found he couldn’t focus. He continued to be distracted by his aunt’s words. What other things did they want to talk to him about? Had they found out about his money? He had never told them and to his knowledge Wardell had never mentioned it either. Perhaps they wanted to charge him rent if he had the money. That would be completely unfair, he was only ten years old, for gosh sakes. True he was almost eleven, but that didn’t change anything! No matter what he couldn’t get it out of his mind. Malik decided a short nap might help him clear his mind and worry less. As he laid down, he thought to himself, “It’s probably nothing, they just want to put me in a private school next year or something simple like that.” As he drifted to sleep, he was somewhat calmed by the thought. A private school would mean more rich kids, maybe he would be able to make more money that way.

A few hours later Malik was gently shaken awake by Daisy.

“Hey sweety, sorry to wake you but your uncle is home and we really should have that talk now.” Malik groaned, confused for a second. Then he remembered and muttered,

“Okay Auntie lets go.”

Upon walking downstairs, Malik spotted his uncle sitting in the recliner in the living room. Eddy Miller was a large man with short black hair, a short beard and mustache, and small brown eyes. A former athlete like his wife, he had spent his college days playing football, and now walked a bit funny due to multiple knee injuries. He was a kind man who spent most of his time working to provide for the family.

“Ah Malik, good to see you. Please have a seat we have some things to discuss.”

“Hi Uncle Eddy, what’s going on?”

“Well, there’s no easy way to tell you this Malik, but well you’re gonna have to move to Britain” Eddy said.

“What? Why?!” exclaimed Malik, “What did I do?”

“It doesn’t have anything to do with what you’ve done” replied Eddy. “You’ve done nothing wrong.”

“Then why are you forcing me out?!” cried Malik. “Why are you punishing me like this?”

“This isn’t a punishment, Malik. It’s something we promised we’d do a long time ago” Eddy sighed.

“Oh, so you’ve known you were going to get rid of me for a long time?” growled Malik. “Why even bother keeping me all these years then?”

“Because you needed a place to stay” replied Eddy sadly. “There was no where for you to go, no one to take you in. We weren’t going to let you go into the foster care system. Lots of those kids struggle. We couldn’t let that happen to you.”

“Then why are you sending me away now?” asked Malik. Its not like I’m grown now; I’ll still just be put in the system.”

“Because sweety, you’re at the age your mom was when she found out she was special. And you are too very special like your mom and dad were. You see, you’re a wizard just like they were” Daisy said gently.

“Really Auntie? Do you really think I’m that stupid?” snorted Malik. “Really, why am I being sent away?”

“She’s not kidding” replied Eddy. “Both your mom and her other sister were gifted with the power of magic. Daisy was the only child unable to use it.”

“And my dad?” asked Malik. “Was he also a ‘wizard’?”

“He was born and raised here in America. An only child from a poor family, he led a hard life even after he was accepted to the school of magic” sighed Eddy. “He was a good man and a great friend. He made us promise on his deathbed that we wouldn’t allow you to experience the pain and hardship he had as a child.”

“And you’re doing this by sending me across the world to live by myself?” exclaimed Malik. “Good job keeping your promise.”

“It’s not like that sweety, you need to live in Britain to attend Hogwarts” Daisy replied.

“What is this Hogwarts? Let’s just pretend for a second you’re telling the truth, why can’t I just go where my dad went to school?”

“Well Hogwarts is generally seen as among the best schools for magic in the world” Daisy answered. “And Clortho has always been an underfunded pit of violence and misery, with drug issues and among the highest level of student violence in the world. It’s a wonder your father came out of there as normal as he did.”

“We promised your father we wouldn’t let you experience that. We will be sending you to stay with Daisy’s sister in London until you get your letter, and the term starts in September. We leave on Sunday, so make sure you pack your things tomorrow” Eddy said.

“And I have no say in this? I have no other options?” asked Malik dejectedly.

“I’m afraid not. We promised your father and we intend to keep that promise. It will be better for you, I promise” sighed Eddy.

“Fine. I’ll be upstairs packing then” sighed Malik.

As he walked upstairs, Malik’s head was spinning. He still wasn’t sure if he believed his aunt and uncle, but he knew either way he would be moving out of the house. He wasn’t sure how to feel. On one hand if they were telling the truth, he supposed he should be thankful that they were putting him in a place where he would be safer and more successful. On the other hand, they could just be trying to get rid of him, and the wizard crap was all just some b.s. There was just too much for him to wrap his mind around while he was packing. He placed everything he really needed into three bags, before he fell asleep trying to think about what he would do tomorrow on his last day in America.


	3. Chapter 3

His day began early in the morning with Eddy shaking him awake while saying,

“Come on Malik, we got some things to do before you can leave tomorrow.”

“What are we doing?” mumbled Malik as he rolled out of bed.

“We got to get you a wand before we allow you to leave. Your father would roll in his grave if we let you use anything but an American made wand” said Eddy. “Now hurry up, we have to make a trip into the city to get it and I don’t want to spend the entire day there.”

“Alright, I’ll be right there” replied Malik.

Even if his uncle was lying about the wand, a trip to the city was always interesting, though as his uncle had said it would take all day. It also seemed unlikely his uncle would be willing to drive all the way into the city just to deceive Malik, so maybe they were telling the truth about him being a wizard. As they left the house Malik asked,

“Hey Uncle Eddy, Auntie and Wardell aren’t coming with us?”

“No. In fact you shouldn’t mention to anyone that I took you to get a wand. Your aunt thinks we are just going to bond for one last day before you leave.” replied Eddy.

“Whatever you say” shrugged Malik.

The rest of the morning was spent driving through the countryside as they approached the city. By lunch time they had arrived at the center of the city. Eddy bought them lunch, before they headed to a small shop tucked away at the back of a dark alley.

“No matter what the Brits may claim, this is the best place in the world to get wands, according to your father” Eddy told Malik. “Now I’m not allowed to go inside, not being magical myself, but just charge however much it costs to my card. They should accept magical or muggle money.”

“Alright, thanks Uncle Eddy” Malik replied as he walked towards the door.

As he entered the shop, Malik realized it was much bigger and nicer than it appeared from the outside. There were numerous charts and fliers on the walls touting studies that showed American made wands were 40% faster than foreign wands, while also being more powerful and sturdily constructed. Others were touting the use of curved wands for increased dueling prowess. There were also hundreds of wands in glass cases stacked against the back wall, along with other interesting looking instruments, including what looked like a modified sniper rifle.

“How you doing kid, looking for a new wand?” asked an old man from behind the counter.

“Yes sir” replied Malik.

“Well then you’re in luck aren’t you, we got plenty of them. Come on over here and I’ll take your measurements, you tell me what type of wand you’re looking for and we’ll get your sorted out.” The old man smiled.

Malik walked over to the other side of the counter and held out his arms as the old man indicated.

“What do you mean, what type of wand am I looking for sir?” Asked Malik.

“Call me Bob” said the man, “And I mean are you looking for a powerful dueling wand, one for everyday use, one that is good for charms or a specific discipline of magic or are you uncertain? Perhaps you are looking for a specialty wand? You see, all my wands are optimized for different areas of magic, and while all of them will work for all types of magic, if you want to be spectacular in a particular area it is better to pick a wand whose strength corresponds to your desire.”

“Oh, I guess then a powerful wand, but I still want to be extraordinary in other areas of magic, not just duels” replied Malik.

“I’ve got just the wand for ya kid, it won’t be cheap though. That a problem?”

“Not at all Bob, let me see it” replied Malik excitedly.

Bob disappeared in the back of the shop for a minute, as he retrieved a wand that he had been holding for years. As he returned, he told Malik,

“This should do the trick for what you asked kid, but we gotta see if it is truly compatible with you. The wand chooses the wizard, to a certain extent, anyway. Just take it and give it a wave.”

Malik picked up the wand and felt a feeling of great warmth in his hand, as he waved it around in the air the wand released great bursts of black and gold fire. Malik gazed on in wonder, and Bob smiled as he said,

“Yep kid, I’ll say you picked the right wand. And let me tell you that may be among the best wands I’ve ever crafted. Brazilian Rosewood, thirteen inches long, and a core made of the retina of a basilisk. A unique and incredibly powerful wand, no one will be able to match your achievements with that wand” Bob said with a smile. “Now for the price, that wand is set at 2000 dollars. A bit steep, to be sure, but worth it for the quality of product. Made in the U.S. of A. and more powerful than anything you’ll find anywhere else in the world. No one else uses the retinas of basilisks, you see.”

Malik winced, there was no way he could drop that on his uncle. Instead, he pulled 1900 in cash out from his jacket and handed his uncle’s card to Bob saying,

“Just charge the rest to the card.”

Bob smiled as he completed the transaction and handed Malik his wand in a box. As Malik was walking out Bob called out,

“Good luck this year kid, goodness knows you’re gonna need it with the way Clortho is these days.”

Malik gave him a little wave as he stepped out. Outside Eddy was leaning against the wall waiting.

“You ready to go Malik?” he asked.

“Yep, let’s get home Uncle Eddy” replied Malik.

The drive home was long and boring, but Malik was busy thinking about his new situation and all the opportunities he would have once he reached his new school, Hagworts or whatever the heck his aunt had called it. He was still a bit uncertain, but he was more ready to believe it might exist after his experience with Bob. As he lay in his bed that night his mind continued to wander, though it had shifted a bit to his other aunt in Britain who he would be living with. What would she be like? Eddy had mentioned she was a witch like his mother had been, but what were witches and wizards like? Were they like normal people or were they completely different? Would she be kind, or would she be a monster? Would there be anyone else in the house or would it just be the two of them? With these thoughts in his head Malik drifted off to sleep in America for the last time.


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning was a scramble as everyone rushed to get Malik packed and to the airport on time. Then there was the ticket and making sure everything was good with it and the flight. Finally, everyone said their goodbyes before it was time for Malik to board the plane.

“Goodbye Malik” Daisy said, giving him a hug. “We’ll miss you.”

“Yeah, goodbye Malik” Eddy chimed in. “You’re more than welcome to come and visit us next summer” he added.

“See ya Malik” Wardell said giving him a playful shove. “Come back next summer.”

“Now, Violet should be waiting for you when you land. She should recognize you. Be good for her okay?” Daisy told Malik. “She doesn’t have a lot of experience with kids your age, but she is excited to meet you. She’s a good person, she’ll look after you.”

“Okay Auntie, I’ll be on my best behavior” Malik nodded. “I guess this is it then. I guess I’ll see you guys next summer maybe.”

With that he gave them a wave as he boarded the plane. It was a rather uneventful, if not long flight. By the time they touched down it was evening in London. As he disembarked from the plane, Malik wondered how he would find his aunt. However, as he approached his baggage, that question was answered for him in the form of a tall dark-haired woman, dressed in all black. The woman smiled at him and helped him with his baggage saying,

“It’s Malik isn’t it dear? Daisy told me all about you, I’m so excited that you will be staying with me. You can call me Violet.”

“It’s nice to meet you Violet. I’m still a little dazed by all this change but I’m excited to be here” Malik replied.

“That’s quite alright dear. I imagine these last few days have flashed before your eyes. Not to worry, we’ll go home for the night and tomorrow we will go get you all the school supplies you need for school. In fact, a letter from the school just arrived for you at home. You should read that when we get there before you get a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow will be another busy day for you.”

They took a cab to Violets home; it was a rather large house on the outskirts of the city. It was quite nice, yet it seemed quite big for just one person to live in.

“You have a very nice house, Violet” Malik remarked.

“Thank you dear. It was my parents’ house and seeing as I’m the only one who decided to stay in Britain, they left it for me. Now let me just show you to your room so you can get settled in.”

The room she showed was rather large, with big windows and a large bed in the corner. The walls were lined with bookshelves full of many old books. Malik decided he liked it very much.

“It’s really nice Violet, thanks for letting me stay here” Malik said.

“I’m happy to have you Malik, it’ll be nice to have another person around this big old house” Violet replied. “Now let’s have a look at your letter that came this morning.”

With that she pulled out a heavy yellow envelope addressed to Malik. The envelope was sealed with a coat of arms that included a lion, a snake, an eagle and a badger surrounding an H. 

“The school crest” Violet commented, “Go ahead and open it up!”

Careful to not tear the seal or the envelope, Malik opened up the envelope and began to read:

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Mr. Pritchard,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall,

Deputy Headmistress

“There should also be a list of equipment you need for class” Violet said. “We’ll head on into the city tomorrow to set you up a bank vault and pick up your supplies okay?”

“Sure Violet” Malik replied as he began to read the second piece of parchment:

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Uniform

First-year students will require:

  1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)
  2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear
  3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)
  4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)



Please note that all pupils’ clothes should carry name tags.

Course Books

All students should have a copy of each of the following:

_The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1)_

By Miranda Goshawk

_A History of Magic_ by Bathilda Bagshot

_Magical Theory_ by Albert Waffling

_A Beginners Guide to Transfiguration_ by Emeric Switch

_One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi_

By Phyllinda Spore

_Magical Drafts and Potions_ by Arsenius Jigger

_Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_

By Newt Scamander

_The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection_

By Quentin Trimble

Other Equipment

1 wand

1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)

1 set of glass or crystal phials

1 telescope

1 set brass scales

Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad

PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS

“Where are we going to find all this stuff?” asked Malik.

“Don’t worry about it dear, I’ll take you to a place that will be able to sell you all that tomorrow” replied Violet. “For now, you should just focus on getting a good night’s sleep and I will see you in the morning.”

“Okay, goodnight Violet” shrugged Malik.

“Goodnight dear.”


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning Malik was woken early by Violet who seemed just as excited as Malik to get his school supplies.

“Time to get up Malik” she said as she gently shook him awake. “We got to get moving if we want to get all your supplies today!”

“Why do you sound so excited?” groaned Malik as he rolled out of bed.

“This is a big day!” Violet exclaimed. “I haven’t gotten to go school shopping since I was at Hogwarts myself. Since I don’t have any kids of my own, I thought I might never get to do it again. But now I have you, and it’s going to be a lot of fun!” she said excitedly.

“If you say so” grumbled Malik.

“Oh, don’t worry, you’ve never done back to school shopping like this before, I promise you that!”

They took a cab into London, stopping at what appear to be a random, normal street. Violet led the way to a rather run down, shabby looking pub, with a sign identifying it as the Leaky Cauldron.

“This here is the Leaky Cauldron, it’s kind of a gateway of sorts between the muggle streets and shops out here and the magical shops on the other side” Violet explained, as she led Malik through the dimly lit, mostly empty pub.

In the alley behind the pub, Violet took out something that could only be her wand, walked over to the wall and tapped at a brick in the wall. A small hole opened in the wall, which rapidly expanded into an archway.

“Welcome to Diagon Alley” Violet said with a smile. “Everything you need for school can be purchased here. First stop is Gringotts, we got to set up a vault for you, then we will get your books and equipment okay?”

“Sounds good Violet” Malik said as he took in the scene with awe.

As they walked down the street, Malik was amazed at the exotic nature and variety of the shops. It looked as if Violet was right. He had never been shopping in any kind of place like this before. An Apothecary, exotic pet shops, broom showrooms, equipment shops, and a wand shop. And of course, at the end of the street, a huge, white building that could only be Gringotts. As they entered, Malik glanced up at the large plaque framing the words,

_Enter, stranger, but take heed_

_Of what awaits the sin of greed_

_For those who take, but do not earn,_

_Must pay most dearly in their turn._

_So if you seek beneath our floors_

_A treasure that was never yours,_

_Thief, you have been warned, beware_

_Of finding more than treasure there._

“Wild” he commented.

“Oh yes, the goblins mean business. Don’t ever try to steal from goblins Malik, they can be quite nasty” Violet responded before heading to the counters. She immediately found a free goblin and approached.

“Hi there, I wanted to set up a vault for my nephew here.”

The goblin looked down from his seat at Malik, then shrugged.

“I’ll need a name, occupation and a place of residence” he stated.

“My name is Malik Pritchard; I’m a student and I guess you can just use the address that’s on file with my aunt here” Malik replied.

“Okay Mr. Pritchard, I’ll need you to sign this” the goblin said as he placed a piece of parchment on the desk in front of him. “And this will be your key” he continued as he placed a small golden key next to the parchment.

Malik signed the parchment and then carefully placed the key in his pocket.

“Will there be anything else Mr. Pritchard?” asked the goblin.

“Yes, I would like to convert and deposit roughly three hundred thousand American dollars to whatever form of money is used here in the wizarding world” Malik replied.

Violet looked at Malik in shock, but the goblin simply nodded “Very well Mr. Pritchard, let me see your money or bank card and I will convert your funds to galleons and have hem deposited in your vault. Would you like to visit the vault for confirmation of your transferred funds?

Malik began to nod, but Violet cut him off saying,

“Sorry but we will not have time to visit the vaults today. We can come back another day before the term starts if you want to get confirmation Malik.”

“Then our business is concluded. Have a pleasant day” the goblin said.

“And you as well” Malik said with a bow.

With that, Violet led Malik out of Gringotts and back into the street.

“We’ll talk more about where you acquired that sum of money later” Violet said with a laugh, “But for now don’t worry, I’ll pay for all your supplies and books for this year.”

“Thank you Violet, that’s very kind of you” replied Malik.

“It’s nothing dear, I’m happy to help you. Now let’s go get your robes, Madame Malkin’s is right there.”

Madame Malkin was a rather short, squat witch with a large smile on her face. When Malik entered the shop, she gave him a merry wave and asked,

“Hogwarts dear? Head on back to the fitting area and I’ll get you fitted up.”

As Malik walked to the back of the store, another young witch entered the shop with her parents.

“Hello, I’m here to get my robes for Hogwarts” she said with a bossy sounding voice.

“Yes, hello dear, head on back and stand next to the young man in the back of the shop and I’ll get you fitted” Malik heard Madame reply.

Malik nodded at the girl as she came into view and took the step stool next to him. She was a bit short next to Malik, had lots of bushy brown hair, and large front teeth. Malik decided she was kind of cute.

“Hi, I’m Hermione Granger” the girl said in the same bossy voice, “And you are?”

“Malik” supplied Malik.

“Just Malik huh?” she replied. “Well, it’s nice to meet you. Are your parent’s wizards? Mine aren’t, in fact I’d never heard of Hogwarts before I got my letter last week. I’m super excited though, I already got all my books and I glanced over them and there just seems to be so much to learn about in the Wizarding world. Do you think it’s going to be difficult to learn magic? I’m worried it might be. That’s why I’m planning on spending the rest of the summer preparing for the start of term. Do you know what house you’ll be in? Well, I guess no one really knows until they get there, do they? Based off the little reading I’ve been able to do I hope I’m in Gryffindor, I think it sounds the best and I even read that Professor Dumbledore was in it when he was a student. Though I do suppose Ravenclaw would be alright as well.”

She said all this rather fast and ended her last sentence panting. Malik gave her a little smile and let her catch her breath before responding.

“Oh, I’m not too concerned about it. If it were so difficult there wouldn’t be so many wizards walking around us right now would there? Though I too am interested in learning more about Hogwarts.”

“I suppose you’re right. I hadn’t thought of that” Hermione said, with a smile on her face. “Say, your voice sounds a bit funny. Where are you from anyway?”

“I live in London right now, but I’m originally from America” shrugged Malik.

“Ooohh that’s fascinating, I’ve never met an American before. What’s it like over there?” Hermione asked.

Fortunately, before he had to explain America, Madame Malkin gave him a smile and said,

“That’s you done dear.”

With that Malik climbed down from the stool and gave Hermione a little wave.

“I guess I’ll see you around then Hermione.”

“Yes, I’ll see you at Hogwarts” she replied.

As they left Violet gave him a smile and said,

“Look most of this other stuff is quite boring, why don’t you go get the books you need, I’ll get the rest of your supplies, and we can meet over at Olivander’s last to get your wand?

“I’d like to actually visit all the shops with you if that’s alright” Malik replied.

“That’s not a problem at all dear. I forgot how exciting all this must be for you. Still let’s go get your books first, then we can move on to the other supplies.”

With that they entered Flourish and Blotts, where Malik decided to not only purchase his schoolbooks, but a few others, including _Hogwarts, a History,_ and a couple of wizarding finance books. After paying his bill and leaving the shop, they headed to the apothecary, where they bought his cauldron and potion supplies. The also bought a set of crystal phials and a nice set of brass scales. Next, they bought him a collapsible telescope, before picking up some quill’s and ink. Finally, they made a stop at a pet shop.

“I decided to get you a present” Violet said with a smile.

They entered the shop and looked around until Malik saw a small wicker basket sitting in the corner. Malik opened the basket to find a small white kitten inside. Upon seeing him the kitten gave a little meow as a greeting.

“I think I’ll get this one. This little guy’s real cute” Malik said with a grin.

“A good choice” the shopkeeper said as she came over. “He’s a real clever little one.”

Violet also bought him a black owl, before leaving the shop.

“You need an owl to deliver your mail at Hogwarts” she explained. “No one enforces the one pet rule anyway.”

“Thank you so much Violet” Malik said happily as he played with the kitten and the owl.

“Don’t mention it dear, what are you going to name them?”

“I think I’ll call the kitten Kneecap and the owl Inky” Malik replied.

“Those are nice names” laughed Violet. Now let’s go get you a wand.”

Malik knew he already had a better wand than he was going to find in the shop, but he had promised Eddy to not tell Violet about the wand. Plus, two was better than one, and if anything ever happened to his American wand he would have a backup. As he entered the shop, Malik noted it was quite different from the American shop he had visited. It was much darker and dustier, though there were the same towers of wand boxes against the wall.

“Good afternoon” came a voice from behind the boxes.

A little old man, with pale, wideset eyes, that seemed to shine through the shop and grab you in your place, appeared in front of them.

“Hello” Malik gave him a little nod, “I’d like to purchase a wand.”

“Yes, that’s what I’m here for after all” the man said with a grin. “Come over here and I’ll take your measurements.”

With that, Mr. Ollivander began to measure his wand arm in every which way imaginable, explaining, “Every Ollivander wand is made with the core from a magical creature. We use phoenix feathers, unicorn hairs, and dragon heartstrings. Every Ollivander wand is a piece of art and no two are the same.” Finally, the tape measure dropped as Mr. Ollivander approached Malik with a stack of boxes.

“Now here are a few wands to try. See if any of them feel right to you, the wand chooses the wizard after all. Just take them and give them a wave.” Mr. Ollivander said happily.

It didn’t take long to find a wand that responded to Malik. On the third wand gold fire burst from the tip as he swept the wand through the air.

“Wonderful!” Mr. Ollivander exclaimed. “And a very fine wand you have chosen too. Eleven and a quarter inches, Yew and dragon heartstring. A rather powerful wand, and one of my personal favorite creations. You take good care of it for me.”

“Of course, Mr. Ollivander” Malik replied with a smile and a bow.

With that, they paid and left the shop. The journey home was rather uneventful, but they both returned home rather tired. After a quick bite to eat, Malik said goodnight to Violet before heading to his room to sleep and begin to prepare for the new challenges that might await him at Hogwarts.


	6. Chapter 6

The rest of the summer passed rather quickly. Malik spent most of his time diligently reading over his schoolbooks as well as the additional books he had purchased. Additionally, he had begun to practice some of the spells mentioned in the books. To his surprise, he found them to be quite easy to master, and by the end of the summer he had progressed so far, he had to return to Diagon alley to purchase _The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 2)_ in order to find new material to challenge himself with. Malik had also withdrawn a portion of the gold from his vault, as he figured it would do him some good to have some liquid assets when he finally did arrive at Hogwarts.

Violet turned out to be quite an interesting person, and Malik got along really well with her. She passed most of their time together telling Malik about her childhood with his mother, about their time at Hogwarts, and about many of the secrets she had discovered while being a member of the Ravenclaw house. Malik had pressed her to learn all about her knowledge of the Castle and school grounds, as well as everything she could remember about classes and her professors.

“The most important thing” she told Malik, “Is to let the hat tell you where it thinks will be a good fit. If you go in thinking about a specific house, the hat will almost certainly put you in that house. The hat’s been doing this for years, it knows where you should go. Don’t be a fool and try and tell it where you want to go. Most people end up in the same house as their family did, anyway.”

“What house were you and my mom in?” asked Malik.

“Well, I was in Ravenclaw” Violet began. “And your mother was in Gryffindor.”

“So, I’ll probably be in Gryffindor huh?” asked Malik.

“Who knows about you?” Violet shrugged. “Sometimes things go a different way, you just never know.”

…

By the time the end of the summer had arrived, Malik felt prepared to make his entrance to the school. He would be sad to leave behind Violet though, as she had been much more fun and helpful than he could have imagined. They spent their last night together discussing the finer points of quidditch, as Violet was a huge fan of the sport, and Malik was very interested in not only the strategy of the sport, but also the gambling implications.

The next morning, they woke early to pack all Malik’s things in his trunk. After a quick breakfast, they loaded his trunk into a cab before heading to Kings Cross station. After arriving and loading the trunk on a trolley, Violet led Malik through the station to the barrier between platforms 9 and 10. Violet then proceeded to lead Malik through the barrier, having described to him that morning how to get to platform 9 ¾.

“You need to lean on the barrier between platforms 9 and 10.” He recalled her saying. “Some people like to get a running start, but I always thought that was foolish as it just draws the attention of all the muggles around you.”

After passing through the barrier, Violet helped Malik load his trunk into a compartment in the middle of the train. Kneecap jumped onto a seat and curled up to go to sleep. Not long after they had finished another boy appeared and stashed his trunk in the same compartment.

“Hello, you don’t mind if I share this compartment with you do you? My name’s Finn Parks by the way” the boy said with a smile.

“Malik. And you go right ahead” replied Malik with a nod.

Not long after that a familiar puff of bushy brown hair appeared outside the compartment.

“Oh, hello Malik, do you mind if I join you? I don’t know anyone else here” Hermione asked.

“Hey Hermione, sure you can join us. You can tell me what you learned about Hogwarts” Malik replied with a grin. “Oh, Finn this is Hermione. Hermione, Finn.”

After talking for a few moments Malik interjected,

“Hey guys, I’m gonna go say goodbye to my aunt before we take off. Watch Kneecap for me. See you in a minute.”

Malik walked towards Violet who was standing on the platform talking to a couple of other parents. As he approached, Violet excused herself and walked over to Malik with a grin.

“So, you ready to get going?”

“I can’t wait. I’m pretty excited to just get there and get started.”

“Oh, I bet you are. You’re going to have a great time. I’ll send Inky once you get there that way you won’t get in trouble if they decide to enforce the one pet rule. Sound good?”

“That would be great! I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done for me Violet. I guess I’ll see you over Christmas break huh?”

“Whatever you want to do dear, you’re more than welcome to visit, but don’t feel obligated to show up. The castle is a marvelous place around the holidays.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks again Violet.”

“Have a good term” Violet replied with a smile.

With that, Malik returned to the compartment and just in time too, as the train began to move as he settled into his seat. He gave a wave to Violet out the window before the platform faded from view. And with that he knew he was in it now, no backing out, he was committed to becoming a wizard.

As he sat there thinking about the implications of what his decision was and where his life was headed, Hermione and Finn had begun to talk about their parents and their muggle lives. Malik jerked out of his thoughts in time to learn both were muggleborn and that Hermione’s parents were dentists.

“My parents were quite shocked to receive the letter” she was explaining. “But once they got over the idea that there were witches and wizards, they were quite pleased that I had been accepted, of course.”

“My parents were just happy to have a good school to send me to” Finn replied. “This is a much better school than I would’ve been attending otherwise.”

“What about you Malik?” asked Hermione.

“Oh, my aunt and uncle sent me here specifically to go to Hogwarts. They said whatever school of magic that’s back in America isn’t very safe” Malik replied.

He also gathered that Finn knew next to nothing about magic, while Hermione had spent much of her summer the same way Malik had, studying up on magic as well as on the school itself.

Before long a lady came by with a trolley full of sweets. Malik purchased a large amount for each of them, as none of them had ever tried any of them before. As they were enjoying their sweets, their compartment door opened and a tearful, round faced boy poked his head in.

“I’m sorry have any of you seen a toad around?” he asked in a sad voice.

“Nope” shrugged Malik.

“Oh, have you lost him?” asked Hermione. “I’ll come help you look, just let me change into my school robes first.”

With that she went into the adjacent compartment and returned a few minutes later in her new robes.

“Okay, you ready to go …?”

“Neville” the boy supplied, “Neville Longbottom.”

“Okay Neville lets go find your toad. I’ll see you two later.”

“Bye Hermione” Malik said with a wave.

With that Hermione and Neville left and Malik was left alone with Finn.

“So, Finn what do you do for fun?” asked Malik.

“Well, I like football a lot. I’m a big Arsenal fan” Finn said with a grin. “Do you follow a team?”

“In a sense I suppose. Though I’m not big into what you call football. Where I’m from football has a different meaning, but I’m a big fan” Malik replied.

They continued to talk about different strategies in their respective forms of football, and what they thought quidditch would be like for the rest of the trip. Only after they had changed into their robes and the train had come to a halt in the Hogsmeade station did Hermione return to their compartment.

“Did you find what’s-his-name’s toad?” Malik asked.

“No, the toad wasn’t anywhere. We asked everyone. Poor Neville he’s pretty upset.” Hermione replied.

“I’m sure it’ll turn up, everyone here is a wizard after all, it can’t be too hard to find a lost toad” chortled Finn.

As they disembarked from the train, they heard a gruff but friendly sounding voice calling out:

“Firs’ years! Firs’ years over here! All right there Harry?”

Out of the dark came a huge man, bigger than any Malik had ever seen before. He had a huge, hairy face, wild hair and massive hands that were carrying a lamp, but he also had friendly crinkled eyes as he smiled down at the new students.

“C’mon, follow me – any more firs’ years? Mind yer step, now! Firs’ years follow me!”

With that the students began to follow the giant man down a dark path. The path was narrow and treacherous, and quite a few students ended up slipping a bit as the traversed it.

“Yeh’ll get yer firs’ sight o’ Hogwarts in a sec,” the giant called back over his shoulder, “jus’ round this bend here.”

As they rounded the bend, a great lake appeared, before a vast mountain and a large castle lit up against the night sky by the lights shining from its many windows.

“No more’n four to a boat!” the big man called out, as he pointed to a bunch of boats on the shore. Malik and Finn were joined in their boat by a pair of girls who gave their names as Parvati and Padma Patil.

“Everyone in?” called the man, “Right then – FORWARD!”

And with that the fleet of boats set sail across the lake. Everyone seemed to be looking up in awe of the castle as they approached the cliff it was built on. Once they reached the cliff the boats carried them into an underground harbor, and they disembarked from the boats.

“Oy, you there! Is this your toad?” called out the big man, much to the delight of Finn.

“Trevor!” cried Neville, with apparent relief on his face.

“I told you he would be easy to find” Finn grinned.

With that, they left the underground harbor, eventually arriving at the huge doors at the entrance of the castle.

“Everyone here?” Called out the small giant. He then raised his massive hand and knocked a few times on the castle doors.


	7. Chapter 7

The doors opened almost immediately and a tall, stern looking woman with dark hair waited on the other side. She gave the first years a stern look before saying,

“Thank you for delivering the first years Hagrid, I’ll take them from here.”

And with that they followed the witch into the castle. The entry way was quite large, carved from stone and very impressive. Malik had never seen anything like it. The first years followed the witch into a small antechamber where they could hear hundreds of voices coming from a room nearby.

“Welcome to Hogwarts. I am Professor McGonagall” the witch said. “In a few moments you will be able to join the rest of the school in the Great hall for the start-of-term banquet. Before you take a seat and begin to enjoy the feast, you will be Sorted. You will be placed into one of four houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, or Slytherin. Each house has its own history and has produced many fantastic witches and wizards. The Sorting is an important ceremony because while you are here, your house will be somewhat of a family to you. While you are encouraged to make relationships with people from all houses, you will attend classes and sleep in dormitories with the members of your house, so these will most likely become your closest friends and confidants.”

“While you are here you will be rewarded with points for your achievements and you will lose points for breaking school rules. At the end of the year, the house with the most points wins the house cup, a big honor that entails a banquet in their honor. I wish you the best of luck in helping your house out this year. The Sorting will begin in a few minutes. I’ll return for you at that time.” And with that she left.

Malik rolled the information over in his head. Nothing new or unexpected, Violet had briefed him on the basic details of the house cup and each of the houses. She had also mentioned that he would have a bit of influence over which house he was sorted into. With this in mind Malik nudged Finn and asked,

“Hey what house do you think you’ll be sorted into?”

“Honestly, I’m not sure. What are you thinking?” Finn replied nervously.

“I’ve been thinking it over and I decided that I think Hufflepuff would provide a unique opportunity for me” Malik replied. “I think it would be a great fit for you as well.”

“I’ll keep that in mind” Finn said.

At that instant a number of people screamed as many ghostly figures appeared out of thin air. While one of them appeared to talk to the rest of the students, a different one approached Malik and Finn motioning them to the side of the room. He appeared to be a fat little monk who had a cheerful grin on his face.

“I heard you two talking about my old house” he said with a grin once they got to the side of the room. “I am always thrilled to have students who are enthusiastic about joining Hufflepuff, so I’ll give you a tip. In the corner of the common room is a hidden trap door, find it and figure out the way to unlock it and you will discover another room. This room has been unused for centuries, and I’ve heard it used to be Helga Hufflepuff’s private retreat and bunker.”

“Thank you very much” Malik said with a nod. “We will certainly investigate once we have joined the house.”

“Wonderful!” the ghost exclaimed. “Well, the sorting must be coming up soon now, so I’ll leave you two to it” and with a smile and a wave he left.

Not a moment after he had left, Professor McGonagall returned to lead them into the Great Hall saying,

“Now form a line and follow me, the Sorting Ceremony is about to start.”

As they entered the Great Hall, Malik had to admit, he was impressed. Four long tables packed with students, hundreds of floating candles providing light, hundreds of plates, cups, bowls, and sets of silverware laid out on the tables, and a ceiling that looked like the night sky. Hermione had mentioned earlier it had been bewitched to match the sky outside perfectly.

Professor McGonagall led the first years past the tables to the front of the room in front of another table, at which the teachers were sitting. In front of them she placed a four-legged stool and on top of it an old, dirty wizard’s hat. Everyone was looking at the hat, Malik included, waiting for it to do something. And sure, enough the hat twitched, a rip opened and then began to sing:

"Oh you may not think I'm pretty,  
But don't judge on what you see,  
I'll eat myself if you can find  
A smarter hat than me.

You can keep your bowlers black,  
Your top hats sleek and tall,  
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat  
And I can cap them all.

There's nothing hidden in your head  
The Sorting Hat can't see,  
So try me on and I will tell you  
Where you ought to be.

You might belong in Gryffindor,  
Where dwell the brave at heart,  
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry  
Set Gryffindors apart;

You might belong in Hufflepuff,  
Where they are just and loyal,  
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true  
And unafraid of toil;

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,  
if you've a ready mind,  
Where those of wit and learning,  
Will always find their kind;

Or perhaps in Slytherin  
You'll make your real friends,  
Those cunning folks use any means  
To achieve their ends.

So put me on! Don't be afraid!  
And don't get in a flap!  
You're in safe hands (though I have none)  
For I'm a Thinking Cap!" 

With that, the hall exploded into applause and then McGonagall began to call names:

“Abbott Hannah!”

A girl with blonde pigtails stepped up and had the hat placed on her head. The hat sat there for a minute before shouting out:

“HUFFLEPUFF!”

With that Hannah left and walked to the Hufflepuff table on the right smiling and greeting those around her.

“Bones, Susan!”

Again, the hat shouted:

“HUFFLEPUFF!” And Susan went off to join Hannah.

“Boot, Terry!”

“RAVENCLAW!”

This continued on for a while with Malik only paying the slightest bit of attention. Then,

“Granger, Hermione!”

“GRYFFINDOR!” shouted the hat. Bummer thought Malik, but no real loss you could still be friends with people from other houses.

“Hedgeflower, Gwendoline!”

“HUFFLEPUFF!”

“Hopkins, Wayne!”

“HUFFLEPUFF!”

Malik noted the addition of two more students to the Hufflepuff house, wondering if either of them would be friends. More names were called, and more students were sorted, before McGonagall called out:

“Parks, Finn!”

Finn walked up to the stool, sat down and placed the hat on his head. Inside the hat, Finns thoughts were racing. Then he heard a small voce in his head saying, ‘Ah Finn Parks! You’ve got talent, bravery, and loyalty. I think I know where to put you.’ ‘Hopefully Hufflepuff’ thought Finn. The hat sat there for a moment before declaring:

“HUFFLEPUFF!”

Malik smiled a bit. He liked Finn and they seemed to be getting along well, so he was happy to see him sorted into his future house. As McGonagall continued to call out names, Malik knew his name must be approaching. However, before McGonagall could reach his name she called out:

“Potter, Harry!”

This promptly caused the entire hall to fall silent. Malik gave the boy who was walking up a curious glance. No one else had elicited this sort of response, so who was this boy? He was rather skinny, with messy black hair and a pair of round glasses that covered his green eyes. Through the front of his hair Malik could make out a lightning bolt shaped scar on the boy’s forehead. Malik shrugged; he’d have to figure it out later. Meanwhile the hat had been sitting on Potter’s head for a solid minute before finally declaring:

“GRYFFINDOR!”

This elicited the biggest cheer of the night so far, again confusing Malik, but he had no time to think about it as McGonagall call out:

“Pritchard, Malik!”

He walked up and placed the hat on his head. Immediately he heard a voice in his head:

“Hmm a lot of difficult ones this year” the hat said. “I could conceivably put you in any house, you got the brains, the ambition, the cunning, the bravery, everything each house asks for, so what shall I do with you?”

‘How about Hufflepuff’ thought Malik. ‘Put me in there’ he continued to think.

“Hufflepuff hmm? Now that is unusual. Most of the time I have to convince the students that Hufflepuff is right for them not the other way around! Well, who am I to deny Hufflepuff an eager member?” And with that the hat shouted: “HUFFLEPUFF!”

Malik received a rather meager applause after the thunderous ovation Potter had received, but he was okay with it. It would give him a lower profile; he would always be the kid called after Potter. In fact, he doubted most students would even remember he had his name called. He would always be in the shadow of Potter; he would never be a household name. But that just meant he had no expectations to live up to. No one was going to know who he was, and no one was going to expect anything special from him like they would of Potter.

As Malik joined the Hufflepuff table and sat next to Finn and the other first years, he asked:

“So, who is this Potter kid and why is everyone so interested in him?”

“He’s the Boy Who Lived! He defeated You-Know-Who and saved the wizarding world when he was just a baby!” the girl called Hannah Abbott spoke up over Finn’s shrugging shoulders.

“Who is You-Know-Who and how did Potter defeat him as a baby?” Malik asked. Hannah looked kind of nervous, but she replied:

“He was the greatest Dark Wizard of this century. He was taking over and killing everyone. He killed Potter’s parents and then tried to kill Potter, but he died instead of Harry. No one knows what made Harry Potter special enough to survive, but he did and in the process, he saved our world.”

“That’s fascinating” Malik replied.

As they were talking the last few students were being sorted. Someone called Ron Weasley was sorted into Gryffindor and the ceremony concluded with Blaise Zabini being sorted into Slytherin. With that Dumbledore rose and gave some weird four-word speech about Nitwits or something like that. Malik found it to be quite odd, but he quickly forgot about it as food appeared in front of him. Everything he could imagine, even some American dishes appeared on the table. For this, Malik was immensely grateful, as he had not completely adjusted to bland British food yet.

As the first years ate, they conversed about numerous different topics from quidditch to family history. The others were quite interested to hear about America, as American wizards were quite rare in Britain in general, but especially in Hogwarts. Even some of the older students got in on the conversation once they heard talk about America. One of them introduced himself as Cedric Diggory, and Malik proceeded to have a pleasant conversation with him about some of the differences between America and Britain.

Nearby Finn was talking to Wayne Hopkins, who could be heard saying,

“Yes, I’ve always been good at fixing things, muggle or magical. My dad even had me tune up his car to be able to fly!”

Malik, who by then had wrapped up his conversation with Cedric and was beginning to feel a bit sleepy, scanned the crowd for the Potter boy. He wasn’t hard to find, sitting at the middle of the Gryffindor table, surrounded by the other first years. As Malik observed him, Potter did something quite curious. While looking at the high table, Potter suddenly grabbed at his scar with a look of pain in his eyes. In the next second he released it with a look of confusion on his face. Malik didn’t know what to make of it, but he filed it away for later use and resolved to get closer to Potter and form some sort of relationship, as he knew Potter was going to be someone important during his time at Hogwarts.

Just then Dumbledore rose from his seat and all the food disappeared from the table.

“Now for some quick announcements before you head to your dormitories” he began. “New students should remember the forest on the school grounds is forbidden. And some of our older students could do with a reminder” he said with a glance at the Gryffindor table. “Next, I have been asked by our caretaker, Mr. Filch, to remind you that magic is not to be used in the hallways. Quidditch trials will take place the second week of school. Those wishing to try out must let their captains or head of house know by then.”

“And finally, this year the third-floor corridor to the right of the school is out of bounds for anyone who does not wish to die an extremely painful death.”

Malik snorted at this, but most of the students appeared to be taking it seriously.

“Is he serious?” he asked Finn.

“Guess so” shrugged Finn.

Finally, Dumbledore finished by introducing the school song. It was a rather weird experience, as everyone sang in a different tune, resulting in everyone finishing at different times.

“Ah, music” sighed Dumbledore. “A magic that is beyond even the most gifted of us. Now off you go.”

“He really is crazy, isn’t he?” asked Malik, as they followed their prefect from the table.

“Kind of sounds like it” Finn agreed.

The prefect led them not up into one of the towers, but down a set of stairs to a corridor below ground.

“This is the kitchen corridor” the prefect said. “The entrance to our common room is here at the end. To enter, you must tap the barrel two from the bottom, middle of the second row in the rhythm of ‘Helga Hufflepuff.’ This will open the door for you.”

With that he did and led them into the common room. It was a low, round room, full of cushy yellow and black chairs. The prefect directed them through two circular doorways to their dormitories. Malik followed the tunnel until he came to a door with his name on it. He entered to find he was sharing a room with Finn as well as the boy who had been talking about flying cars at diner, Wayne Hopkins.

The room held five four four-poster beds, and soon two more boys joined them, introducing themselves as Ernie Macmillan and Justin Finch-Fletchy. The room was lit by copper lamps and was very warm and cozy. Kneecap leapt onto one of the beds and curled up with a small meow. With a wave Malik retired for the night as he was tired and wanted to be ready for the next morning.


	8. Chapter 8

The first week flew by. It was a struggle for Malik to find his way around the castle, as everything seemed to change all the time. Staircases moved, doors had to be asked politely to open, some doors moved, and some doors were just walls pretending. While it was quite a struggle at first to find his classes, luckily the classes themselves were quite easy for Malik. Each teacher was different, with Malik particularly enjoying Professor Flitwick and Professor Sprout. Flitwick was a tiny man who stood on a stack of books to see the class over his desk. He was so excited when he read Harry Potter’s name during the first class, he nearly forgot to read Malik’s name. Despite this, he was a kind and enthusiastic instructor.

Professor Sprout, the head of the Hufflepuff house, taught Herbology in the greenhouses. Malik found that while he was not particularly interested in plants, he had a natural talent for the subject. As such, he enjoyed the class quite a bit.

Professor McGonagall was intense and stern. The first day of class she gave them a lecture before even beginning the lesson.

“Transfiguration is among the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn here at Hogwarts. I expect you to be on your best behavior and study hard if you wish to succeed in this subject.”

With that, she changed her desk into a pig and then changed it back with a wave of her wand. Everyone was excited to get started on class after her demonstration, but it quickly became a boring lecture about complex procedures and formulas. When they were finally allowed to try some magic, they were to turn a match into a needle. No one was able to achieve it by the end of class, aside from Malik, who perfected his technique within the first twenty minutes. As such, he was given no homework.

History of Magic, taught by the ghost Professor Binns, was immensely boring, as even Malik tuned it out. The class he had been looking forward to was Defense Against the Dark Arts, but Quirrell turned out to be a joke.

“Wow” Malik said as they left. “I have no words.”

“Yeah, that sucked” agreed Finn.

Having completely read through and practiced all the spells before having left Violet’s house, most lessons were nothing but review. The teachers were impressed with the competency he displayed from the first day. Malik’s level of proficiency was only matched by Hermione, something he was amused at and happy about at the same time. Finn and Wayne, who quickly became his best friends, did not share the same natural ability and ease during the lessons. As a result, they were left with more homework, while Malik was free to roam and explore the castle more.

On Friday, while talking with Hermione, she mentioned going down to Hagrid’s (Malik had learned the giant man’s name was Hagrid) hut for tea later in the day after potions. She offered to bring Malik along if he wished. Always curious to explore more of the castle and grounds, Malik agreed.

But before they could go and visit Hagrid, they needed to attend potions with Professor Snape. Snape had a reputation for favoring his own house, he was the Head of Slytherin, over all others. Malik entered the dungeon where class was to take place and took a seat next to Finn and Wayne. They were joined by Susan Bones, a rather shy girl from Hufflepuff. They had scarcely gotten settled, when Snape swept into the classroom, cape swirling behind him.

Like many of their other professors he started class by taking role, and like many other professors he paused when he reached Harry Potter’s name.

“Ah, Harry Potter, our new…celebrity” he said with a smirk.

After finishing taking role, Snape looked out at the class and was silent for a moment, before launching into a monologue.

“You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making” he began. “As there is little foolish wand waving in this class, many of you will believe this is hardly magic. I don’t expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids as they creep through the human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses…I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death…if you aren’t a bunch of useless little snots like I usually teach.”

This speech caused the class to look around the room. Many people exchanged looks with each other, including Finn with Malik. Potter was also exchanging looks with a red headed boy, when Snape suddenly called out,

“Potter! What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?”

Potter looked a bit confused before replying,

“I don’t know sir.”

“Tut tut…clearly fame isn’t everything” Snape sneered at him. “Let’s try again. Where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?”

“I don’t know sir” Potter again replied. He was beginning to look a bit flustered and was clearly trying not to look at a few of the Slytherins on the other side of the dungeons.

“Never opened a book before you got here, huh Potter?” Snape continued to sneer. “Last chance. What is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?”

“I don’t know sir” Harry replied for the third time. “Maybe you should ask someone else.”

“Obviously I should, Potter” Snape sneered. “You are clearly useless. You, there!” he barked pointing at Malik. “Same question, what would I get by adding powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?”

“The Draught of Living Death, sir” Malik replied confidently.

“Correct” Snape growled. “And where would you find a bezoar?”

“In the stomach of a goat, sir.”

“Yes. And what is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?” Snape continued, now looking slightly less angry.

“There is nothing sir, they are the same potion and have also been known to go by aconite.”

“Very good, Mr. Pritchard. It’s nice to know at least some students are prepared for this class. The rest of you write that down!”

There was a sound of rustling bags and parchment as the rest of the class scrambled to find something to write with.

“I shall be taking a point from Gryffindor for your failures Potter” smirked Snape.

After that, Snape placed them into pairs to brew a simple cure for boils potion. Malik and Finn were almost finished with their potion when suddenly loud hissing noises came from the corner of the dungeon. The Gryffindor boy Neville had managed to melt his cauldron, and his potion was now seeping across the floor, burning holes in whatever it touched.

“Idiot!” snarled Snape. “Take him to the hospital wing! And another point from Gryffindor for not warning him Potter!”

It was hardly Harry’s fault, but no one in the dungeon felt like pointing that out to Snape at that particular moment. Finally, class ended. As they were leaving Snape called out:

“Mr. Pritchard, stay here for a moment.”

Malik stopped and headed back into the dungeon. Snape was waiting for him at the front of the classroom.

“You performed adequately today Mr. Pritchard. Congratulations” Snape drawled. “I’ll be watching you now, and I expect you to continue your performance in this class. Do not disappoint me” he finished.

“Yes sir, I won’t let you down” Malik replied.

“Good” Snape said with a dismissive wave, indicating that the conversation was over.

As he left the dungeons, Malik couldn’t help but wonder what that had been about. Soon it was put from his mind as he reached the entrance hall and spotted Hermione standing by Harry and the red headed boy he had been sitting with in class. As he walked up Hermione spotted him and began:

“Malik this is Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. Harry and Ron this is Malik. He’s a Hufflepuff” Hermione said.

“It’s an honor to meet the Boy-Who-Lived” Malik said with a smile. “And a Weasley as well, always a pleasure to meet someone from your impressive family.”

“Nice to meet you Malik. Well, we must be going, we have to meet Hagrid” Harry said after shaking Malik’s hand. He seemed anxious to avoid him after the events that had transpired in the potions class.

“Oh, you don’t know?” Hermione asked. “We’re meeting Hagrid right now too.”

“Wonderful” Ron said with a sigh. “Let’s get going then.”

With that, they walked down to the hut together. Harry and Ron seemed relatively friendly towards Malik after realizing he held no ill will against Harry, though they seemed a bit icy towards Hermione. He’d have to ask about that later. Right as they reached the hut, Hermione seemed to remember something and apologized before running off.

“Good riddance” grumbled Ron.

“Hey, do you guys have a problem with her or something?” asked Malik.

“No, she’s just a bit annoying and a bit of a know it all, you know?” answered Ron.

“You should give her a chance” countered Malik. “She seems really nice, she’s just really excited to be here, and she is smart. You could do a lot worse looking for friends.”

“I suppose you’re right” Harry said. “We’ll talk to her more later.”

With that, they knocked on the door, and were greeted by Hagrid. Harry introduced Ron and Malik to Hagrid before they had at some tea and rock cakes. Hagrid seemed to know a lot about Ron’s family.

“Another Weasley eh? Spent half o’ me life chasin those brothers o’ yours out o’ the forest. How’s Charlie? Always liked ‘im, good with animals, Charlie was.”

Ron talked about Charlie and his job in Romania, before Hagrid turned his attention to Harry’s fear of Snape’ hatred.

“That’s rubbish!” he proclaimed. “Why would he?”

Interestingly, Hagrid seemed to look away when he said it, so there might be something there thought Malik. Finally, Hagrid turned his attention to Malik.

“So, yer an American, eh?” Hagrid said with interest. “Haven’t had one o’ you lot ere in a long while. Hopefully you won’t be as much trouble as the last one, eh?”

“Oh, I don’t think I’ll be causing much trouble” Malik said with a large grin.

“Sure, you won’t” Hagrid chortled.

At this point Harry picked up a clipping of some newspaper and held it to where Malik could read.

GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST

Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on 31 July, widely believed to be the work of Dark wizards or witches unknown.

Gringotts goblins today insisted that nothing had been taken. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied the same day.

“But we’re not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what’s good for you,” said a Gringotts spokesgoblin this afternoon.

Malik found it interesting and wondered what had been in the vault. But Harry found it even more interesting and exclaimed,

“Hagrid, that Gringotts break-in happened on my birthday! It must have happened while we were there!”

This elicited a rather strong response, or rather a non-response from Hagrid as he wouldn’t meet Harry’s eyes and quickly changed the subject. After accepting some rock cakes as a parting gift from Hagrid, Harry mentioned the vault and the package to Ron and Malik.

“That vault that was mentioned in the paper, I think it might have been the vault Hagrid cleaned out on my birthday” Harry whispered excitedly.

“Really? What was in it?” asked Malik.

“Just a small package wrapped in brown paper. Hagrid said Dumbledore had sent him to pick it up.”

“I wonder what it could be?” Ron said.

“I wonder who tried to steal it” Malik replied.

They spent the rest of the walk up wondering what could have been in the small, grubby package that would have been worth stealing. At the entrance hall they said their goodbyes and made plans to talk about it again, before Malik headed back to his dormitory.


	9. Chapter 9

With the start of the next week came the news that flying lessons were starting on Thursday, to provide the first years with some experience before the quidditch tryouts. Malik was intrigued to try flying, though he had his doubts that he would be any good at it. Finn however, seemed very excited about it. Malik got the impression that Finn would very much like to be a member of the quidditch team, and he hoped Finn would be able to fly well enough to be in consideration. As they headed out to the field for their first flying lesson, all anyone could talk about was Potter. Apparently earlier in the day, he had pulled off some pretty impressive flying maneuvers that had landed him a spot on the Gryffindor team. This was newsworthy as apparently Gryffindor hadn’t had anyone that young on their team in a century. Finn was very animated and excited on the walk, obviously ready to impress anyone who would be watching. When they arrived, Malik noticed Cedric standing off to the side along with an older girl, who could only be another member of the Hufflepuff team. Obviously, they were scouting for talent to help out their dismal team from the previous year.

“Don’t look now Finn but looks like your wish has come true. The scouts are out and watching” Malik said with a grin. “Impress them and you may be looking at a spot on the team.”

“I’m about to blow them away” Finn said with a look of intense determination on his face.

And blow everyone away he did. While Malik was able to get his broom off the ground and move through the air competently, Finn was flying circles around everyone in the air. He did a couple of barrel rolls and followed it up with a couple of loops, before going into hairpin turns and dives. Malik tossed a couple of apples he had taken from the dining table out over the field and each time Finn dove and caught them before they could hit the ground. By the end of the lesson, Cedric and the girl were watching with their mouths hanging open. Once the first years were all back on the ground, they approached Finn and began talking to him. A few minutes later, Finn walked over to Malik with a huge grin on his face.

“I’ve just made the quidditch team!” he exclaimed.

“I knew it, with the way you were flying, they would be crazy not to add you!” Malik replied. “Do you have a broom yet?”

“No, they said I’d just have to use one of the school brooms. Most of them use the school brooms anyway” Finn said with a shrug. “But it doesn’t matter because I’m a chaser. And I’ve got lots of ideas and tactics I want to implement that I think can really take the team to the next level” Finn continued with enthusiasm.

“You know what else would help the team?” asked Malik, “New brooms. I’ll order new nimbus 2000’s for the team as my congratulatory gift.”

“Woah really? That’s not cheap.”

“It’s nothing, but I will want reports on how the team is doing, and I may want your unbiased opinion on how the team looks before the first match. Okay?” Malik replied.

“Wow, okay! Thank you!” Finn gushed.

With that he took off with Cedric and the girl to meet the rest of the team and tell them the good news. After he had left Malik turned to Wayne as they were walking.

“Do you think you could tinker with brooms to make them faster?” He asked.

“Yeah, no problem” Wayne replied. “You want me to work on the new brooms and make them even better?”

“Yep. Also how do you feel about betting on matches? And do you have a particularly strong moral compass?”

“I’m always up for a little gambling action. And I wouldn’t say my moral compass always points north. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to kill anyone or anything like that, but I’m willing to bend the rules” Wayne replied with a grin. “What did you have in mind?”

“Now that Finn is a member of the team, we have an inside man” Malik said. “We can take his info and use it to create lines for the games. I plan on talking to him later about this, but I think I can even get him on board with throwing some of his games when necessary. We can make a fortune, especially right now, when nobody expects them to be any good. They win a few games and the money suddenly shifts to them, boom Finn throws the game for us, and we’re all rich.”

“I like the way you think” Wayne said. “I’m in.”

“Great. Meet us tonight in the common room. There is something I want to look for that we could use your help with.”

“I’ll see you then” Wayne said as he left.

That night, after dinner, Malik and Finn were in the common room waiting for everyone else to clear out. They were talking with Hannah and Susan for a long while before the two girls got tired and decided to go to bed. Finally, when everyone had cleared out, around midnight, Wayne showed up.

“Alright, what are we looking for?” he asked.

“On our first night the Fat Friar mentioned some sort of hidden trap door that led to a bunker of some kind” Malik replied. “Since you’re good with this sort of thing I thought you might want to help us find it and open it. Then we can have a quiet place to hang out and conduct our business uninterrupted.”

After poking around the circular room for almost a half hour, Wayne made a noise from behind one of the couches.

“I think I found something” he called out.

Sure enough, hidden beneath a tapestry, was a shallow nook. On the floor of the nook was a black and yellow rug that Wayne had pulled aside. Underneath it was a metal trap door, secured by an interesting looking lock.

“Can you get it open?” asked Malik.

“Without a doubt! I just need to get my tools” and with that he hurried off to their dorm to grab his bag. When he returned, he spent about a quarter of an hour tinkering with the lock, happily muttering to himself while he tried different tools at different angles and in different positions.

Finally, with a small click, the lock popped open and Wayne pulled the trap door up. Beneath it was a ladder descending into a room that looked very similar to the common room above it with a couple of exceptions. It was the same size and shape, with a number of couches and chairs, however these chairs appeared to be much more richly upholstered. Malik assumed they were dragon leather, given the soft scaly appearance. There were also a number of expensive looking tables and desks, and in the corner of the room, a set of scales that actually held a pile of galleons on one end.

“Look at that, paying dividends already” Malik grinned. “Now this is our place. Let’s not spread the word about it huh?”

“Agreed” both Finn and Wayne chimed in.

“Now, Finn we had something we wanted to talk to you about” Malik continued. “How do you feel about money?”

“I like money” Finn replied with a confused look.

“Good. How would you like to make a lot of money this year with us? I’m talking about enough to pay your way through the rest of your education and then some.”

“I’m definitely interested. My family is rather poor, we struggled to get me all my books this year and we’re not sure we’ll be able to afford next year” Finn said with his head hung.

“That’s good. Well, not good, but I’m happy you want to work with us” Malik answered. “What we are going to do is bet on quidditch games throughout the year. We are going to be the bookies for all the matches this year.”

“Okay, but what if your numbers are no good, and you lose all our money?” Finn asked.

“First off neither of you will lose any money. I’ve got enough to cover all the losses myself. And second, we’re mainly going to make our money off your games. It’s a multiphase plan. Now you may have to control the score of the game, you may even have to throw a game. Will you be able to do that?” Malik asked nervously. This was a big part of his plan after all. He could still make it work without Finn’s cooperation, but it would be much more work for much less money.

“Are you kidding? I’ll do anything to get myself and my family out of poverty.” Finn replied. “How’s this plan of yours going to work?”

“The first phase you won’t have to do anything except for win on the new brooms I’m giving you and that Wayne here has agreed to modify. Hufflepuff was so bad last year, nobody is going to bet on you guys. After you guys have been blowing people out for a couple of weeks, and the money shifts to you guys, that’s when you hit them with the point shaving. Whatever side the majority of the school bets on will be the losing side. That way we always make money” Malik explained. “Understand?”

“Yep, I’ll do my part” Wayne agreed.

“How will we split the money?” asked Finn.

“A sixty, twenty, twenty split” Malik answered. “Sixty for me, for coming up with the idea, as well as going around and collecting everyone’s bet and money. Twenty for the both of you for your parts in this. It’s a good deal, you won’t find anything better anywhere.”

“Works for me” shrugged Wayne.

“I agree” concluded Finn.

And the three of them shook on it. And thus, while Harry Potter was discovering the secrets of the forbidden third floor corridor, one of the most infamous groups in school history was formed.


	10. Chapter 10

The next day Malik heard all about the adventure in the corridor from Hermione.

“They were just so stupid to follow through and try to duel Malfoy. He was obviously setting them up” Hermione complained. “And to make matters worse, while we were running from Filch, we discovered this monster of a three-headed dog in the forbidden corridor!”

“What was it doing there?” Malik asked.

“It was standing on a trap door, so it was obviously guarding something!” Hermione whispered excitedly.

“Any idea what it is?” asked Malik.

“No and I don’t want to” replied Hermione. “I’m just happy I didn’t die or worse get expelled.”

“Fair enough” said Malik. “How are Harry and Ron taking it?”

“They seem to think it was a magnificent adventure. They are busy wondering what the dog is guarding and probably wondering if they can go back and look at it. I don’t know though; they don’t talk to me a whole lot.”

“Really? I thought you were all friends. Oh well, don’t give up on them yet Hermione, I’m sure they warm up to you. Anyway, I’ve got things to attend to. We’re studying in the library, later right?” asked Malik.

“Yep, I’ll see you then” replied Hermione.

With that, Malik left to view Finn’s first quidditch practice. He had to admit he was curious to see how the team would look and if the new brooms that had arrived that morning would make a difference. Upon arriving at the pitch, he noticed practice must have already started, as the team was already up in the air flying around. He settled himself into the stands to observe the team but also to watch Finn’s progress.

And progress he had. With the new broom, Finn looked twice as good as he had the previous day. He was clearly the best flier there even with no experience playing quidditch. The rest of the team was looking decent as well. The captain, Gladys Prescott, an intense fifth year, had revamped the team this year by bringing in a number of young, talented players. Cedric was a solid, if unimaginative chaser and a decent flyer. Heidi Macavoy, a rather pretty second year, was a creative chaser and impressive flyer as well. Grace Nutley and Bernard Maltby, both third years, while a bit on the smaller size, were both surprisingly good at directing the Bludgers where they wanted them to go. Finally, rounding out the team was the seeker Zara Valli, an attractive fourth year, who was probably the second-best flier on the team after Finn.

As he watched, Malik was mulling over a problem. He hadn’t realized that each house only played three matches in a year. While that meant there were plenty of matches overall, it wasn’t really enough for him to manipulate the lines like he wanted to for the Hufflepuff matches, because there were so few. Fortunately, he was able to come up with an idea. If he could convince Madame Hooch to set up a couple of scored scrimmages between houses It would allow him time to hone his skills and his plan, while also providing more money for him and more entertainment for the school.

When the practice had ended, he approached Finn.

“Well, how was it?”

“We’ve got a lot of work to do, but I think we can be more than ready for our first scrimmage” Finn replied.

“Good” Malik said, as they began the walk up to the castle. “We’ll begin to put the plan into place then. You will have no obligation except to win the match. Understand?”

“You got it” Finn said with a grin. “Now can you help me with my potions essay? I’m still not finished with it.”

“Fine, lets go take care of it” sighed Malik. “But only if you introduce me to some of those girls on the team.”

“Oooh, who you looking at? Finn teased with a smirk.

“You know what, forget it” Malik grumbled as they entered the castle.

…

With, the rousing success of the quidditch scrimmages, and as a result his massive success in creating a thriving gambling industry at the school, the next couple of months flew by for Malik. His success had created a lot of buzz and he was expecting a huge number of bets for the first official match of the season. While his classes remained rather basic, he had progressed to learning more advanced techniques and spells by himself, whenever he had free time. He also continued to foster a relationship with Hermione, and to a much lesser extent Harry and Ron. Hermione proved to be a reliable source of intelligence for what was going on in the Gryffindor house, as well as for what Harry and Ron were getting into. The latter was more interesting than useful, but it was obvious to Malik that Hermione was desperate for friends and to be accepted, so he listened to her complain about how they would skirt the rules or whatever it was they did and just nod in understanding.

On Halloween morning, Malik woke with a groan. With the first official quidditch matches right around the corner, he had spent the previous night making the rounds throughout the castle, taking bets for the first match. His weariness was quickly replaced with excitement though, as he sniffed the scent of baking pumpkin in the air. That and the promise of a splendid Halloween feast was enough to get him eager to get through the day.

The morning was taken up by Charms, always an eventful class, as they were always charming something and someone was always messing up, creating interesting results. That morning there was excitement in the air, as Flitwick had announced it was time to make things fly.

“Now, remember the nice wand movement we’ve been practicing” Flitwick called out from on top of his desk. “A swish and a flick. And the incantation, _Wingardium Leviosa._ ”

While much of the class was having trouble, Malik was easily levitating his feather in front of him and Finn. Next to him Harry and his partner seemed to be having trouble getting their feather off the table. Further down, Ron seemed to be having even more trouble, waving his arms in wildly in all directions while loudly shouting:

“ _Wingardium Leviosa_!”

“You’re saying it wrong” Hermione snapped from next to him. “It’s _Win-gar-dium Levi-o-sa._ Make the gar nice and long” she advised.

“You do it then, if you’re so clever” Ron snapped back at her.

“ _Wingardium Leviosa_ ” Hermione said, swishing and flicking her wand causing her feather to rise in the air.

“Oh, look everybody!” Flitwick called out. “Ms. Granger’s done it!”

“Yeah, just ignore the fact I’ve been doing it for ten minutes now” Malik grumbled to Finn.

Ron seemed quite frustrated by the end of the lesson. Malik heard him say something about Hermione, before he noticed Hermione running away down the hallway. As he hurried to catch up with her, he noticed she had tears running down her face. Quickly Malik called out,

“Hermione! Wait up!”

“What do you want now? Come to gloat? Or call me names now?” she practically sobbed.

“Why would I do that? What happened to you Hermione?”

“Oh, it’s you Malik” She said as she looked up with tear-stained eyes. “I’m just so tired of dealing with those two. All I’m trying to do is help him, and he starts saying I’m a nightmare and how I have no friends.”

“Hey, now that’s not true. You have me for one, and you’re not a nightmare! Who was saying those things to you?”

“Who do you think? That freckled, ginger dumb ass! And his friend, wonder boy may not have said it, but he was thinking it. I could tell!”

“Do you want me to deal with them?” Malik asked. “There’s no reason for anyone to be treating you that way. You’re a wonderful person and wickedly smart. They should be begging you to help them, and instead they insult you!”

“No, don’t do anything stupid and get in trouble. I’ll be okay, I just need some time alone.”

“Come find me if you need someone to talk to, okay?”

“I will. Thanks Malik, you’re a good friend.”

“Don’t mention it Hermione, I’ll see you at the feast later.”

As Hermione left, Malik pondered her situation. While Potter seemed fairly bright, Weasley did not come off as such. However, neither of them came off as bad people either, which likely meant the whole thing was a misunderstanding. Ron had just been frustrated with his inability to perform the charm in class, and Hermione just happened to be the one who caught his anger. He hadn’t seen Harry say anything back to Ron, and Hermione had said he didn’t say anything, so she was just lumping the two of them together because they were close friends. He continued to think about it throughout the rest of his classes, before it was put out of his mind when he entered the great hall for the feast. 

“Pretty wild, huh?” asked Finn, as hundreds of live bats flew overhead.

“Yeah, but who cares about the decorations, I’m here for the food!” replied Wayne as he grabbed whatever he could get his hands on.

Malik was quite enjoying himself, when Professor Quirrell burst into the hall screaming something about a troll in the dungeons. As the students began to freak out Dumbledore roared,

“Prefects lead your houses to your common rooms!”

As they filed out Malik turned to Finn and grumbled,

“Really, we’re disrupting this feast for a troll that is isolated in a completely different part of the castle. That’s the best idea Dumbledore has. Shit, the Slytherin’s common room is in the dungeons isn’t it? Why send them into danger? Why not just send a couple teachers to deal with it and let us enjoy the feast? This shouldn’t be that difficult to handle.”

“I completely agree” Wayne responded.

“Oh shut up, you just want more food” Malik snorted. “You want some food? Get some from the kitchens when we pass.”

“How do I do that?”

“You know that painting of the fruit bowl we pass every day? Tickle the pear.”

“What are you talking about?” giggled Wayne. “Tickle the pear? Is that some sort of joke?”

“Tickle the pear, and you’ll be able to enter the kitchens. Just ask for some food for us, then bring it down to the bunker. See if you can grab some firewhiskey too. Maybe we can still salvage this night.”

“I’ll see what I can do” Wayne replied.


	11. Chapter 11

The Halloween debacle ended up being more useful than Malik could have ever imagined when he drunkenly collapsed into his bed. The next day all he heard about was how heroic Harry and Ron had been in defeating the troll and saving Hermione. At breakfast, he looked over to see the three of them engaged in what appeared to be a friendly conversation. Later that week, after a rather interesting charms class, he ran into Hermione in the hallway.

“Hey Hermione, how are you?” Malik asked.

“Malik, hi! I’m doing much better. Did you hear what happened on Halloween?”

“I’ve heard some rumors, but I don’t know how much of it is true. What happened?” Malik asked with interest.

“Well after I talked to you, I felt a little better, but I still wanted to be alone. So, I went into the bathroom for the rest of the afternoon.” Hermione said. “The troll actually came into the bathroom and was going to attack me. I was so scared I wasn’t able to move.”

“Wow that’s pretty frightening” replied Malik, while privately he was a bit disappointed Hermione had frozen up that easily.

“Let me finish” Hermione continued. “After that Harry and Ron showed up. I guess they felt bad for what they said earlier. Anyway, Harry shoved his wand up the troll’s nose, and Ron knocked it out using the thing’s own club.”

“Really?” Malik laughed. “His first instinct was to jab his wand in the thing’s nose. No spell no nothing just jumping up there and shoving it in? That’s too much.”

“Hey what would you have done? I’m just grateful they were there to help me. They’ve been really nice to me since, I think they consider me one of their friends now, so that’s been really nice.”

“I’m really happy for you Hermione. You deserve more friends. But just so you know, I would not have shoved my wand up that thing’s nose!” Malik replied with a laugh.

“Sure sure, laugh it up” she said with a smile. “But thank you Malik, you’ve been a good friend to me, and I do appreciate it.”

“Not a problem Hermione. You’re an easy person to be friends with. So, you excited for the first quidditch match of the year? How’s Harry feeling about it?” Malik asked with interest.

“I’m super excited to see Harry out there! I think he feels a bit nervous; all indications though are that he looks really good in practice. Even though they haven’t played him in any of the scrimmages, I think they all feel really good about him. We’ll see this weekend though, huh?” Hermione replied.

“I guess so. See you around, Hermione.”

“Bye Malik.”

…

The morning of the match was quite cold and bright. Malik awoke early to make one last round through the school to find anyone interested in betting on the game. Slytherin was the heavy favorite, and almost all the money was coming in on them. Only the Gryffindors were willing to bet on Harry and his team, and even then, only a small few. By the time the match started, nearly everyone in the school had placed a bet through Malik, including a couple of teachers. Malik found himself needing a Gryffindor win, or he would be out a decent amount of money.

As the match began, he sat with Finn and Wayne and directed his focus on Potter. He could faintly hear some Gryffindor commentating on the match and heard quite a few people laugh when he made a few jokes. The first portion of the match was going rather poorly for the Gryffindors. After scoring the first points, and being awarded a penalty, the Slytherins settled in and began to take control. They cut the lead in half when the scored the first time, and then proceeded to build a forty-point lead. This was put out of everyone’s mind however, when Potter’s broomstick began to try and buck him off.

“That’s wild” muttered Wayne. “A new broom like his should never act that way. Someone has to have tampered with it or be cursing it.”

“You really think someone would go that far for a school quidditch match?” asked Finn nervously.

“Oh yeah, especially between Gryffindor and Slytherin. These guys have hated each other for centuries.” Wayne said. “Plus, Malik over here added the incentive of money into these matches, so I have no doubt someone would do it. You ought to be prepared when you play your first official match Finn, just in case.”

“I don’t think this has anything to do with money” Malik answered thoughtfully. “This is someone trying to kill or maim him. I have a feeling this is more about Potter and less about Quidditch. Hopefully someone is able to catch him though. We wouldn’t want anything to happen to him.”

At that moment, whatever had been affecting Potter’s broom seemed to ease up and Harry regained control and immediately went into a dive. As he pulled up just before the ground, he looked as if he was going to be sick. However, he just coughed the snitch out of his mouth and ended the match.

As the crowd began to understand what had happened, cheering began to roll throughout the stands. Malik’s was among the loudest of the cheers, having just secured himself a significant amount of gold. As they walked back up to the castle, they talked a bit about Hufflepuffs match next week, and how they thought it would go, before Malik had to go and pay off the few students who had been brave enough to bet on Harry and the Gryffindor team.

…

The next day Malik had an interesting encounter with Hermione in the Library. Seeing her intently scanning an unfamiliar looking book, he sidled up curiously.

“Whatcha looking at there Hermione? Some boring b.s. for History of Magic?”

Hermione jumped a little bit when she heard this, before replying,

“Oh, Malik you startled me. No nothing boring. I do have a question for you though. Come here” she motioned him closer until she could whisper. “Hagrid let a name slip when we were asking him about what is being guarded in the forbidden corridor.”

“Really? Whose name?”

“Someone called Nicolas Flamel. Have you ever heard of him?”

“I can’t say that I have, but I’ll keep my eyes open” Malik replied. “Why are you so interested in this? I thought you didn’t care what that dog was guarding.”

“Okay I’m kind of interested, but we think more than the dog is guarding whatever it is. We also have some proof that someone may be trying to steal it. At least that’s what Harry and Ron think” Hermione whispered urgently.

“That’s very interesting” Malik said while stroking his chin. “Well, I’ll let you know if I find anything.”

With that, he walked away. Malik made a mental note to ask Finn and Wayne if they knew anything about Flamel later. If not, he had a few ideas of where to look, but it was going to be a long process, and he was not particularly eager to get in on that, especially with the upcoming match between Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw.

As he headed down to the pitch to watch practice, he was deep in thought. So deep, in fact he walked right into Zara Valli, the pretty seeker from the quidditch team. As he stumbled backwards, his face turned red as he apologized.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to run into you!” he stammered.

“Oh, don’t worry about it, it was my fault for not paying attention to where I was going” she replied.

“Where were you going anyway?” asked Malik. “Aren’t you a part of the quidditch team?”

“Yes, but I’m having problems with my broom, so I have to go borrow one of the school ones for now until I can get it looked at.”

“Well, that’s no good is it?” replied Malik. “Do you want me to have my friend take a look at it? He’s very good with this sort of thing.”

“Really? That would be great! I don’t want to be the only one at the match flying with a school broom, bad for my image you know?”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll have him look it over tonight. Should have an answer as far as what’s wrong with it by tomorrow. It may take a little longer to fix, but you’ll have it back by the match.”

“That’s perfect thank you so much!” she said. “By the way, I’m Zara. What’s your name?” She asked with a smile.

“Malik.”

“Well Malik, it was nice running into you” she said with a little laugh. “I’ll bring you the broom later okay?”

“Okay Zara, see you then.”

With that, he continued to the pitch and settled in to watch the practice. The team was definitely coming together as a unit. Heidi and Finn worked really well together, with Cedric providing very solid support up the middle. Grace and Bernard both seemed to be shaping up rather nicely, while Gladys looked intense as always. And Zara looked amazing, Malik thought. She was also pretty good at flying, even with the school broom. By the end of the practice Malik was super excited. He didn’t see how they could lose their upcoming match, and he knew nobody in the school was going to bet on Hufflepuff after their awful performance the previous year.

As he left the practice field, Finn approached him with a grin on his face.

“So, you decided to help Zara out with her broom huh?” he began.

“Yeah. She said she was having issues, so I told her I’d have Wayne take a look at it” Malik replied.

“That’s real nice of you Malik” snickered Finn. “You just did out of the kindness of your heart huh? No ulterior motives?”

“Just trying to be helpful. Besides you guys can’t have your seeker riding a school broom against Ravenclaw, you’ll get creamed” Malik said.

“Ah, just looking out for the team, or protecting your investments huh? Sure, you are” smirked Finn.

“What are you saying?” asked Malik.

“She has a boyfriend you know.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Malik asked as his face went red.

“Ha ha that’s what I thought” laughed Finn. “She did say you were cute though, for what it’s worth.”

“Can we talk about something else?’ mumbled Malik as the walked into the Great Hall.

“Sure, how are you gonna get Wayne to look at it tonight when we got a massive load of charms homework due tomorrow?” Smirked Finn.

“I’ll pass him some money or something” mumbled Malik.

“Nah, I don’t think he’ll go for that. His marks are really important to his parents, he’ll get in big trouble if he doesn’t do well.”

“Then I’ll do it for him” shrugged Malik. “It’s not hard.”

“You wanna do mine for me too?” asked Finn.

“No.”

“Hey Malik, here’s my broom. Thanks again for looking after it. I hope it’s easy to fix” said Zara as she popped up from seeming nowhere.

“Oh, uh no problem Zara. I’ll let you know about it tomorrow” replied Malik.

“Hey Zara, guess what?” Finn said with a wicked grin on his face. “Malik here – oof. Is a very nice person, isn’t he?” Finn finished with a gasp as Malik elbowed him hard under the table.

“Oh yeah, he’s great. I see why you’re friends with him. Well, I gotta go. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

With a smile and a wave, she left to join her boyfriend farther down the table, leaving a very flustered Malik and a very happy Finn behind.

“I’ll do your charms homework if you shut up” Malik said.

“Whatever you say” smiled Finn.

…

By the time the weekend hit Malik was riding high. Zara’s broomstick had only had a minor balancing issue, that Wayne had been able to straighten out in a few minutes. Zara had been extremely grateful and had agreed to help tutor Malik with some of the more difficult spells he was currently struggling to learn. Additionally, the second quidditch was shaping up to bring in even more money than the first, provided of course Finn and the rest of the team could find a way to win.

As they walked down to the pitch for the match Malik couldn’t help but smile. Wayne too was smiling, mostly because the giant box of chocolate frogs he had bought with the money Malik had paid him to fix Zara’s broom, had arrived that morning. Nothing seemed to motivate him as much as some good food or sweets did.

Finn had arrived at the field earlier with the rest of the team. As they sat in the changing room, Gladys went over the strategy one final time.

“Alright people, we aren’t letting these brainiacs beat us this year. We may have been laughingstocks last year, but this year is going to be different. We got some new blood, we got some new brooms, and we are going to go kick their ass” she declared.

Finn felt a bit sick but was doing his best to remain calm. Heidi, who obviously felt the same way, was doing a much poorer job hiding it.

“How do you do it Finn?” she asked. “I’m over here trying not to throw up and you’re just calm as can be over there.”

Before he could answer, Gladys announced,

“It’s time, let’s go!”

With that they marched out onto the field and waited for the signal. Once the whistle blew, they kicked off the ground and shot into the air. Finn immediately felt his instincts take over and all his nervousness flooded out of him. He felt calm, and immediately began to work the Quaffle back and forth between Cedric and Heidi. Heidi unfortunately, must have still had some jitters as she immediately dropped the Quaffle the first time it was tossed to her.

This put them in an early hole, however Finn was able to even the score out in the next few minutes. After another ten minutes the Hufflepuffs were starting to exert their will on the game. The combination of speed and skill from Finn and a now much calmer Heidi, with the support of Cedric up the middle, proved too much for the Ravenclaws to handle. Hufflepuff jumped out to a hundred-point lead. At this point the beaters on both sides began to make their presence felt and scoring stagnated for the next twenty minutes. Meanwhile high above the action, Zara zipped around looking for the snitch. Cho Chang, the Ravenclaw seeker, did her best to keep up, but her broom was inferior. Her only hope was to block Zara, which she tried unsuccessfully to do.

As the match hit the hour mark Hufflepuff led two hundred to twenty. It was at this moment that Zara went into a dive, easily outpacing Chang, and snagged the snitch a few feet above the ground. With that the match ended to thunderous applause and cheers.

Malik was thrilled. He had easily earned twice as much money from this match as the Gryffindor one, and he was happy to see Finn and Zara succeed. As he headed back to the common room for the party that was about to take place, he couldn’t help but wonder about the name Hermione had told him. Who was Flamel? What did he have that was so valuable it had to be guarded in the castle? All thoughts about it were put out of his mind however once he hit the common room, and soon enough all his other thoughts were gone as well as he indulged in the fire whiskey with Finn and the rest of the team.


	12. Chapter 12

As November rolled on Malik continued to wonder about Flamel. Finally, one Friday afternoon, he asked Finn and Wayne if they had ever heard the name before. As predicted Finn never had, but Wayne, who was munching on a chocolate frog piped up,

“Yeah, I’ve seen that name before. It’s on Dumbledore’s chocolate frog card. He’s some sort of alchemist or something” he mumbled with his mouth full.

“An alchemist huh? That’s interesting. So, whatever’s being guarded could be pretty valuable. Maybe we should steal it” Malik mused.

“Get a grip mate” snorted Finn. “How are you going to get past whatever three headed monster that is guarding it?”

“The Cerberus?” Malik scoffed. “That’s pretty easy. All you have to do is play some music and the thing will go to sleep. I’m more worried about whatever other enchantments are down there.”

“I mean you’re pretty good at advanced magic, aren’t you?’ asked Wayne.

“Yeah he is. Zara’s been ‘tutoring’ him a lot lately” Finn teased.

“I know a bit” Malik admitted as he aimed an elbow at Finn’s ribs. “It might not just be magical stuff down there though.”

“Okay, so we go through and get whatever we can from down there” shrugged Finn. “Still beats not getting anything at all.”

“Fair enough” Malik conceded. “We’ll do it tomorrow night. Best get something to eat then prepare yourselves.”

With that he headed to the Great Hall for a quick dinner before turning in for the night. The next day passed rather slowly for the three of them, as they were all thinking about what they might find in the corridor that night. By lunch time Finn was a bit on edge.

“I don’t know if I can do it” he muttered nervously as they sat down at the Hufflepuff table.

“Hey, don’t worry about it, just get some food in you and you’ll feel better” mumbled Wayne through a mouthful of roast beef.

“Why is your solution to everything food related?’ laughed Malik. “And you’ll be fine Finn. Nothing bad is going to happen. Worst comes to worst, we turn around and leave without whatever is down there, okay?”

“All right” Finn said. “Let’s just get through the remainder of the day already, so we can get this over with.”

History of Magic seemed to drag on for forever, with none of them really paying attention. Wayne, full of food from his big lunch, promptly fell asleep once class began. Finn continued to worry about the barriers that would stand in their way. And Malik was simply curious about what could be down there that was so valuable. By the time the class ended, and they had shaken Wayne awake, the three of them were ready to go.

After a quick dinner, they headed to the bunker to wait until the rest of the house went to bed. At half past twelve, they crept out from the bunker and left the common room with Malik leading. When they reached the locked door of the third-floor corridor, Malik quietly cast _alohomora_ and they entered.

Sure enough, a giant three headed dog was waiting for them. Malik quickly conjured a harp and charmed it to play before the Cerberus could attack them. He quietly motioned for Wayne and Finn to help him lift the trap door. Below there was nothing but blackness, no steps, no ladder, just a drop into the void.

“Guess we’ll have to jump” whispered Malik. “Go first Wayne.”

“Okay.”

With that Wayne dropped away. Finn followed and Malik brough up the rear. He landed in a patch of shrubbery or plants of some kind.

“One of you want to cast a light in here?” he asked.

A few seconds later they could see they had landed in a tangle of vines that had started to wrap around them.

“Devil’s snare” said Malik calmly. “Don’t move, it will only bind you tighter.”

He then muttered an incantation and golden fire shot out the end of his wand. The Devil’s Snare quickly released the three of them and retreated. 

“You really know your stuff huh?” commented Finn.

“Just basic herbology. Now let’s keep going.”

They continued down a dark passageway until the reached a bright room full of fluttering keys. Finn spotted a couple of broomsticks in the corner and grinned.

“I guess we’re in my area of expertise now huh?”

“I guess so” replied Malik. “Which key do we catch though?”

“You see that big silver one up there? The one with the blue wings?” asked Wayne. “That’s our key.”

“Okay then” Finn said, taking charge. “You two go high and try to herd the key down to me. I’ll pin it and then open the door.”

With that they took off. Wayne had a bit of trouble at first but was eventually able to help Malik as they chased the key around the room. Finally, they were able to hone in on the silver key and force it towards Finn, who quickly pinned, trapped, and inserted the key into the door. The three of them hurried through the door to find another dark room. Then suddenly the room lit up with blinding light. They were standing at the back of a giant chessboard.

“Either of you ever played chess before?” asked Malik.

Finn was quick to shake his head, but Wayne nodded.

“I’ve played my fair share of games” he said.

“You any good at it?”

“I’d probably say so” he grinned.

“Well, you better figure out a way to get us all across this board” Malik told him.

“Don’t worry, I got this” Wayne said with a grin.

He walked up to a knight and toughed the flank of the horse. The knight sprung to life and turned his head toward Wayne with what appeared to be a questioning glance.

“Alright” Wayne said to the knight. “We will join you to cross the board. I’ll take your place, and my friends will take the place of a bishop and a castle.”

The knight nodded then left the board, followed by one of the bishops and one of the castles.

“Malik you take the place of the bishop, Finn you take the place of that castle” Wayne directed. Then he turned and waited for the white pieces to make their first move. Upon seeing white’s opening move, Wayne grinned wickedly and said:

“Oh, don’t worry we got this.”

Sure enough, Wayne guided the three of them through the entire game unscathed, before dealing the final blow himself. As the left the board, the opposing King offered him a salute, which he kindly returned. As they left the room, an awful smell hit their noses.

“What is that?’ grumbled Wayne. “It smells disgusting.”

As they fully entered the room the found the source of the smell waiting for them in the center, a huge troll, probably twelve feet tall stood with his massive club. Once it saw them, the thing immediately began to advance on them.

“Really?” said Malik, unimpressed. “This is the best they could do?”

With that, he sent a trip jinx at the thing’s feet bringing it to the ground and smashing its face into the floor. He followed it up with a quick levitation spell, raising its club to the ceiling, before dropping it on the things head, leaving a massive bloody mess.

“Let’s go” he said.

“Are we not going to talk about how you just single handedly destroyed that troll?” asked Finn.

“Let’s talk about it after we find whatever is hidden down here” Malik said from ahead.

As soon as they entered the next room, purple flames flared up in the doorway behind them, while black flames appeared in the doorway in front of them. The only things in the room were a number of potions sitting on a table and a roll of paper on the table next to them. The three pulled the paper towards them and read:

"Danger lies before you, while safety lies   
behind,  
Two of us will help you, whichever you would   
find,  
One among us seven will let you move ahead,  
Another will transport the drinker back instead,  
Two among our number hold only nettle wine,  
Three of us are killers, waiting hidden in line.  
Choose, unless you wish to stay here for   
evermore,  
To help you in your choice, we give you these   
clues four:  
First, however slyly the poison tries to hide  
You will always find some on nettle wine's left  
side;  
Second, different are those who stand at either   
end,  
But if you would move onwards neither is your   
friend;  
Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,  
Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their   
insides;  
Fourth, the second left and the second on the   
right  
Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight."

“Interesting” muttered Malik.

“You don’t know which one to pick?” asked Finn nervously.

“No, that’s the one we need” Malik responded, pointing to a bottle near the end. “Just an interesting defense choice. Logic is not as common as you would think, and yet, to those who have it, this is hardly an obstacle.”

“That’s beautiful and all, but can we continue?” asked Wayne.

With that they all drank, before passing through the flames. As they entered the room, Malik noticed there were no doors, other than the one they had just entered.

“This must be the last test, there’s no way forward from here.”

The only thing in the room was a huge, ornate mirror, standing in the middle of the chamber. As they approached, the noticed the words ‘The Mirror of Erised’ carved into it.

“Erised huh?” asked Wayne. “Just desire spelled backwards isn’t it?”

“Hey I see myself!” exclaimed Finn. “Only I just won the Quidditch Cup, and I’m living in a mansion with my family.”

“Mirror must show us what we really want to see” muttered Malik to himself as Wayne stepped in front of the mirror.

“Hey, I’ve got my own restaurant!” came the shout from Wayne.

“Of course, it’s food related!” followed Finn’s retort.

“So, my deepest desire must be to find whatever is hidden” Malik continued to himself as he walked in front of the mirror.

As he stepped into the center of the mirror’s field of view, he stopped in shock. He saw himself seated on a golden throne, surrounded by a number of people. Sitting in a throne next to him was a woman whose face he couldn’t see. She was playing with a red stone. Upon seeing the real Malik, the woman handed the stone to the mirror-Malik, before placing a kiss on his lips. Mirror-Malik seemed pretty into it, but he pulled away for a second to give real Malik a wink as he put the red stone in his pocket, before returning to kissing the woman. At the same moment, the real Malik felt the stone thump against his leg.

“I got it guys!” he said excitedly.

“What is it?” came their combined voices.

“A small red stone.”

“Show it to me” Wayne said, suddenly even more excited.

Upon seeing the stone that had been placed in Malik’s pocket, Wayne gave a great excited shout.

“That’s the Philosopher’s Stone. Do you know what that thing can do? It turns things into gold and produces an elixir of life.”

“That’s wild” Finn replied with his eyes wide. “What are we going to do with it?”

“Let’s get it back to the bunker before we make any decisions” Malik interjected.

The return path was much easier to traverse. Everything opened for them as they approached, with the Devil’s Snare even folding together to create steps for them to walk up. By the time they reached the bunker, they were all very excited to discuss the implications of what they had acquired.

“This is even better than I imagined. This thing will make more gold than we ever could have managed.” Malik said with a huge smile. “Now before we go any further, lets discuss how we divvy this stuff up. Seeing as we all played a role in obtaining this stone, I say we split whatever gold we make with this thing in thirds. We’ll take turns throughout the rest of the year making gold in our spare time, at the end of the term, we’ll take it in to Gringotts and split it three ways. Sound fair?”

“I’m in” Wayne said with a wicked grin.

“Me too. We’re going to live like kings, and I’m finally moving my parents into a nicer house” Finn said with tears in his eyes.

“Nobody can know about this though.” Malik said, suddenly serious. “We don’t have this thing, in fact, we don’t even know what a Philosopher’s Stone is do we?”

“Never heard of it” answered Wayne.

“Nope, not familiar with the term” Finn agreed.

“Good. Let’s get some sleep and tomorrow, we can start using the stone.”


	13. Chapter 13

The remainder of the year passed quickly, as Malik and the others quickly fell into a routine. Each day they spent the mornings in class, before attending to the stone in the afternoons. Finn tended to spend less time with the stone, as Gladys had decided to ramp up quidditch practice for the team. This was annoying to Malik on two levels, as it took Finn away from his shifts with the stone, and it meant Zara had no time to hang out with him.

The day after the announcement, she had approached him in the hallway.

“Hey Malik, you’ve heard Gladys is increasing our practice time from Finn, right?” she asked.

“Yep, sounds like you guys are gonna be in pretty good shape for your next match” Malik said with a grin.

“Maybe. Anyway, I wanted to talk to you.”

“What about?”

“Look, I’m sorry but I’m not going to be able to keep helping you” Zara said. “I just don’t have the time with these increased practices. If we have a more regular schedule after Christmas maybe we can start working again, but for now I can’t do it.”

“Oh” Malik said as his face dropped. “Okay. I guess I’ll see you around then.”

“Aww don’t take it like that Malik” Zara said quickly. “We’ll be back together after the new year. And we can still hang out, I just can’t commit to what we’ve been doing anymore for right now.”

“It’s okay, Zara. Really, it’s fine. I’ll see you” Malik muttered as he walked away.

He felt stupid for acting this way, but he had really grown close to Zara, and it hurt to hear her tell him that she had other priorities. As he was walking down the hallway he happened to run into Harry.

“Hey Harry, heard you were staying here for Christmas. That true?” he asked.

“Yep. I don’t have the greatest relationship with my aunt and uncle. This will probably be my best Christmas ever to be honest” Harry said with a grin.

“Well, I’m happy to hear you’re excited. If you wanted somewhere to go though, you’re more than welcome to come home with me. My aunt’s all alone in her house. I’m sure she’d enjoy some extra activity” Malik offered. “Bring Ron too if you want, the more the merrier. Just an option to keep in mind.”

“Really? That’s nice of you to offer Malik. I’ll ask Ron what he thinks and get back to you okay?” Harry replied.

“Yeah, just let me know either way, so I can let my aunt know” replied Malik with a shrug. “Like I said we’d love to have you.”

With a wave he departed to the bunker to take his turn with the stone. Upon his arrival, he noted a large pile of material waiting to be turned into gold. With a rather sad sigh he settled in and got to work. While turning things into gold was exciting the first couple of times, it quickly became boring and repetitive work. There wasn’t much difficulty or skill required, and by the third week, it had become mind numbingly dull. Malik’s mind began to wonder as he progressed through the pile.

He hoped Harry would take him up on his offer. While he did like Violet, her house was big and empty. Christmas would be much more fun if he could get a couple more people in there. It would also be a good opportunity to talk to them and gauge their knowledge about the stone. He wasn’t sure how far along they were in their search. Hermione had stopped updating him on it. In fact, he hadn’t seen much of her since she had initially asked him about Flamel.

He would also be able to ask them about Snape. He couldn’t understand why they would think he wanted to steal the stone. The man had never revealed any desire to do anything except teach and insult his students. It seemed a bit out of character, to Malik anyway.

It was past midnight, by the time Malik finished transforming the pile. With a couple of waves of his wand, he moved the now-gold pile into the far corner of the bunker, adding to the already-ginormous pile. With a groan, he stretched and headed to bed.

…

A few days later, Harry approached Malik while they were waiting for charms class to start.

“Malik, I talked to Ron. We decided we’d be honored to join you and your aunt for Christmas” Harry said.

“Fantastic! She’ll be excited. Should be a good time and some good food too” Malik said with a smile. “It’ll be great to have you.”

“We’re looking forward to it. Ron’s parents are visiting his brother in Romania, so he’s excited too.”

“Great, we’ll talk more about arrangements before we leave next week.”

With that, they headed to class. The rest of the week passed quickly and before he knew it, it was time for Malik to head home for Christmas. He had decided to keep the stone with him, as he trusted no one other than himself with its safety. On the last day of the term, he found Harry and Ron waiting for him in the entrance hall.

“Hey Malik, Professor McGonagall told us to wait here for you” Harry said as a greeting. “She said to come see her to travel back home.”

“Okay then, let’s go” shrugged Malik.

Upon their arrival, McGonagall explained the concept of floo powder to them before sending them through the fire to Violet’s house. Violet was excitedly waiting to greet them on the other side.

“Hello Malik. How was your first experience at Hogwarts?”

“Not too bad Violet. How are things here?” Malik said as he gave her a hug.

“You know, about the same as always. Oh, and welcome you two. Malik told me you might be joining us. We’re excited to have you” Violet said happily.

“Hi Ms…” Harry began.

“It’s Violet, dear. Just Violet” She responded with a smile.

“Hi Violet, it’s nice to meet you. My name is Harry Potter, and this is Ron Weasley.”

“Thank you for letting us stay with you Violet” Ron added.

“It’s nothing dear” Violet said with a smile. “Harry Potter, did you say? Now this is an interesting development.”

“Why do you say that?” asked Malik.

“Well, I was going to ask you about him when I got the chance, but since he is here now, I guess I can just tell both of you. It’s a bit of a family secret though” Violet said, still smiling, though looking a little bit uncomfortable. “You see Malik, your mother was adopted. My parents found her alone on the side of the road, as a baby. She had been abandoned.”

“Really?” Malik asked. “I’ve never heard about that before.

“It wasn’t something we ever talked about. She was just another member of our family, No different from me or Daisy.”

“Did you ever find out who her real parents were?” asked Harry, who was a bit confused as to how this related back to him.

“Oh, we found out alright” Violet said a bit darkly. “They sent us a very threatening letter once they discovered she had been accepted into Hogwarts. Turns out the Potter family had decided they wanted a child. Unfortunately, their first attempt produced a girl, which to them, was unacceptable. They abandoned her and tried again. This time they produced a boy. This boy, James Potter, was your father Harry.”

“What?!” said Harry and Malik at the same time.

“Yes” Violet continued. “He never knew that he had a sister though. His parents kept it from him and threatened our family with financial ruin if word ever got out they had another child. My parents didn’t care too much about that though. She was their child not the Potters. While she did eventually find out who her birth parents were, she never approached them or James, out of fear of harming us. She never held anything against James though, and was very proud of him. She said he was one of the brightest and happiest people in the school” Violet finished.

They all stood in silence for a moment, before Ron spoke up.

“Hey, so wouldn’t that make you two cousins then?”

“Yes, it would” Violet grinned. “And you’re always welcome here Harry. You’re family after all. A bit of a weird and twisted connection between us, but we won’t hold that against you” she finished with a laugh.

“Wow, I don’t know what to say” Harry said as he stood there stunned.

“It’s a lot to take in dear. Grab some dinner then take some time to yourself to let it sink in. Plenty of time for us to all get to know each other over the holiday” Violet said kindly.

“Okay thanks Violet” Harry replied.


	14. Chapter 14

The rest of the holiday passed quickly, as the boys quickly became close. Christmas day produced a large bounty of presents for the three of them, including an invisibility cloak for Harry.

“What is it?” asked Ron, as something silver flowed from Harry’s package.

“It’s an invisibility cloak” replied Malik. “They’re pretty rare and expensive. I wonder who sent it to you?”

“There’s a note!” Ron suddenly exclaimed. “It just fell out when you held the cloak up Harry!”

“Your father left this in my possession before he died. It is time it was returned to you. Use it well. A very Merry Christmas to you.” Harry read out. “Huh, no signature.”

“It was your father’s huh?” asked Malik. “I wonder who he left it with?”

“Don’t know” murmured Harry, deep in thought.

At that moment Violet entered the room,

“Oh, that’s a nice cloak Harry, who sent it to you?”

“Don’t know, there was no signature” Harry replied.

“That’s a bit odd” Violet shrugged. “But you must come downstairs now, the rest of your presents from me are down there!”

Violet had gone all out not only in gift giving but also for the Christmas dinner, producing on of the best meals any of them had ever eaten.

“Wow Violet, this is amazing!” Harry exclaimed.

“Yeah, thanks Violet, this is great!” Malik added.

“I’m glad you like it!” Violet replied. “It’s all my mother’s old recipes.”

“Well, it’s awesome!” Ron said.

They continued with dinner until they were all stuffed and it was time to head to bed. After another week or so it was time to return to school for the start of the new year. Violet stood by the fire to see them off.

“It was so nice to have you here for the holidays. Please do come back and visit over the summer” Violet said.

“Of course Violet, we all had a great time here” Harry assured her.

“Alright, you three have a good term now, okay? Good marks and all that stuff” she said in a sarcastic stern voice. “Just have fun and try not to get in too much trouble” she finished breaking character with a laugh.

“We will, Violet” Malik responded. “Have fun doing whatever it is you do here.”

“I will, dear.”

With that, it was time to travel through the fire and back into McGonagall’s office.

“Believe me I will” Violet said darkly after they had passed through the fire.

On the other side of the fire McGonagall gave the three of them a greeting, before ushering them on as more students were coming through.

“Well, I got things to do” Malik said as the walked away from McGonagall’s office. “I’ll catch up with you guys later okay?”

“Okay, see you” replied Harry and Ron.

With that, Malik headed to the bunker where Finn and Wayne were waiting for him.

“How were your Christmases?” he asked, by way of greeting.

“Mine was great” replied Wayne. “Got a new set of tools and a load of chocolate” he finished with a grin.

“Of course, you did” Malik laughed. “What about you Finn?”

“It was amazing! We actually were able to get presents this year” Finn exclaimed with delight. “I got a broom customization kit that’s just fantastic.”

“I’m very happy to hear that” Malik replied.

“What about you Malik?” asked Wayne. “How was yours?”

“Not bad. Got some more books I was interested in. Found out Harry Potter’s my cousin. All in all, a decent year” Malik said with a little grin.

“Oh, that’s wild!” Finn said. “We going to bring him in on all of this?” he asked.

“No, I don’t think we will” Malik said. “I don’t get the feeling Harry would be alright with what we do with quidditch, and I know he’d go to Dumbledore if he knew we had already acquired the stone. We talked a lot about what the Cerberus could be guarding over the break. Both he and Ron think Snape is trying to steal what’s down there and both of them are determined to stop him” he finished.

“So, you’re saying he might not be pleased to know that someone else has already stolen it?” Wayne said with a laugh. “And he might be even less pleased to know that the person who stole it happens to be his cousin?”

“Yeah, that’s about it. He might also be upset to learn it was sitting in the same house as him over the break too” laughed Malik. “So maybe don’t mention it to him.”

“Alright.”

“So, with that out of the way, I think we should talk about our plans for the rest of this term” Malik said.

“Okay, what are they?” asked Wayne.

“We continue using the stone to create gold. Probably should create a bit of elixir, just in case something happens to one of us down the road, but we’re mostly going to focus on the gold. We continue to build the quidditch team up against Gryffindor, before we drop the hammer in the last match against Slytherin. I think it’s also time to start expanding our group.” Malik stated.

“What do you mean, are we gonna have to split the gold more ways now?” asked Finn.

“No no, nothing like that” Malik reassured him. “Look at it this way. We need to expand our reach and power. If we do this right, we could be running the school in a few years. But we can’t do that by ourselves, we have to bring others in.”

“I don’t know” Wayne said. “What if they are untrustworthy? What if they turn us in?”

“We won’t bring them all the way in, obviously. We will remain in control and alone at the top” Malik assured them. “We bring them in to do some of the grunt work, collecting materials for us, collecting money for the quidditch bets. Paying off the bets we lose.”

“But why wont they turn us in?” Finn asked. “Even they don’t know we have the stone; we could still get in a lot of trouble for some of this stuff.”

“Nothing we’re doing yet is technically against any school rules or ministry laws” Malik reassured him. “Plus, they won’t want to turn us in, they will have the opportunity to earn gold while they work under us.”

“Can we afford to pay them though?” asked Finn.

“Finn, look over in the corner there. That’s probably around a million, maybe a million and a half galleons worth of gold. Even subtracting both of your shares, there’s enough gold there to pay everyone we are going to need for years” Malik snorted. “C’mon man, use your head.”

“Fine, who did you have in mind?” Finn asked.

“To start, I want to bring in a couple of second year guys, Darrel Turner, James Tuckett, and Gregory Munslow. They’ve been friendly to us, and I know Turner and Munslow both need money. We’ll hide the gold and then bring them in for an interview, see if they’ve got the right stuff” Malik said. “We can look at expanding more after we see how they do.”

“Do we want to interview them in the Bunker though?” asked Wayne.

“Yes, we want them to see some of the benefits of joining us” replied Malik firmly.

“Okay you’re the boss” shrugged Finn. “When are we bringing them in?”

“Let’s do it tonight, before classes start up again. Bring them in after dinner, but make sure no one else sees you.”

“You got it” Wayne said.

…

That evening, Malik lounged in a comfy chair, as he waited for Finn and Wayne to return with the three prospective recruits. ‘We’re gonna have to get some nicer furniture in here’ he thought to himself as he waited. Finally, he heard the trap door swing open and saw they had arrived.

“Welcome boys. Please have a seat, there some things we need to discuss” Malik said, gesturing to a couple of chairs.

As they sat down Malik gave them the once over. Darrel Turner was tall and muscular, with dark hair and dark eyes. James Tuckett had short, blonde hair and blue eyes, though he was rather skinny. Gregory Munslow had messy brown hair and green eyes and was also tall and muscular. All three of them were watching Malik curiously as they sat down.

“So,” Malik began, “I imagine you’re all wondering why I asked to see you and also where exactly you are. Well, allow me to enlighten you. This is an ancient bunker from the time of Helga Hufflepuff. This room has sat deserted for centuries until we accessed it earlier this year. This is now our bunker, accessible to no one except us, and perhaps you as well. You see, we are an organization, a gang, or maybe a cartel, I don’t really care what you call us. The point is we are looking to expand, and we think you three might be good candidates to join us” he finished. “What are your thoughts?”

“What’s in it for us?” asked Munslow.

“I would have thought that would be obvious” scoffed Malik. “You get to discover long lost secrets of the castle, be in a position of power compared to the general student body. If that’s not enough for you, the positions also come with a salary.”

“What’s the pay?” Munslow demanded.

“Five hundred galleons a month. Each” Malik responded.

“Why should we work for you?” scoffed Turner. “We’re older and we know more magic than any of you. Why shouldn’t we just take what you have and let you work for us?”

“Tell you what Turner, I’ll duel you right now. If you win, I’ll bump your pay to a thousand galleons per month. However, if you lose your pay drops to three fifty per month.” Malik said with a wicked grin.

“Why would I only accept a thousand if I beat you?” asked Turner. “Why not just take everything you have?”

“Because I don’t have anything here with me. There’s no gold in this room, idiot. Work with me, and I can make you rich Turner, try to screw me and I’ll make sure your life is miserable. It’s up to you.”

“Just do it Darrel, kick his ass and collect more money for us” Tuckett said, as he spoke for the first time.

“Fine. We each get a thousand per month if I win correct?”

“Yes, but only three fifty if you lose. Is it a deal?”

“Fine, lets do this” Turner growled. As much as he didn’t want to, he needed the extra money. Five hundred a month wouldn’t be enough for his family. He had been willing to work for the kid as soon as he heard there was money involved, but he needed more. He wasn’t worried about the duel; he was worried about the kid’s follow through after he had been beaten.

“Alright, ready?” called Finn from the side of the room.

Both Malik and Turner nodded.

“Begin!” called Finn.

Before he could even think to utter a spell, Turner had been hit by a trip jinx. As he fell on his face, a red blast caught him and blasted him back. His wand flipped out of his hands and the last thing he saw before a stunning spell caught him in the chest was Malik’s wicked grin as he caught the flying wand.

He awoke minutes later with a groan.

“What happened?” he asked the room.

“Uh… you got destroyed, my guy” he heard Tuckett say. “We now work for Malik for three hundred and fifty galleons a month. He’s waiting for you to come to, before he explains what our jobs are going to be.”

Turner sat up and looked around the room. Malik was lounging in his chair again, waiting for him to rise. Finn and the other boy were standing in a corner talking to each other, and Greg and James were standing over him looking worriedly at him.

“Ah good, you’re awake. I’m sorry it had to be this way, but I had to make an example out of you. Can’t have people challenging my authority after all” Malik called from his chair. “Please have a seat and we can discuss more pleasant things.”

As they sat down Malik smiled.

“Good. Now, to start you’ll be do rather basic jobs, collecting raw materials for us, collecting money for bets, and paying out money from bets. It’s simple work, should be fairly easy for you to complete. As we continue to expand, your jobs will likely change. You start tomorrow, meet me here before breakfast for your assignments. That’s all for now” Malik dismissed them.


	15. Chapter 15

The next month and a half passed quickly. The addition of Turner, Tuckett and Munslow, had allowed for them to produce more gold each day. It had also allowed them to expand their bookkeeping to other activities outside of quidditch, resulting in more galleons.

Finn continued to practice almost daily for quidditch, which also kept Zara from hanging with Malik. Wayne, meanwhile, had developed a new interest, broom crafting. It was an avenue that Malik was incredibly excited about, as the potential for profit was enormous if a quality product could be created. Upon hearing about Wayne’s new project, Malik immediately sought out Wayne to have a talk.

“Wayne, you’re crafting brooms now huh?” he asked.

“More designing right now” Wayne answered. “If I can get the design right then maybe I’ll go into crafting.”

“I can help you with any costs you may have in setting up a manufacturing plant, as well as with distribution” Malik offered. “Provided you can produce something of decent quality, of course.”

“That’s nice of you” Wayne responded. “How much of the sales do you want?”

“Is that really what you think of me?” Malik asked. “Why can’t I just be helping out a friend?”

“Malik, I know you” Wayne snorted. “You never do anything unless you can get something in return. It’s okay mate, it doesn’t bother me. Now, how much are you going to take for your help?”

“Well, since you are a dear friend, and you just gave me that wonderful speech, I’ll give you a bargain” Malik grinned. “For my investment, I’ll only take fifty percent. You can do whatever you want with the other fifty. Sound fair?”

“Frankly I thought you’d take more” laughed Wayne. “You got a deal.”

“Excellent. Do you have a prototype?”

“I’m currently working on one right now; it should be ready by the end of the week.”

“Okay, I look forward to seeing it in action” Malik said.

The first prototype turned out to be a bit of a disappointment, but Wayne promised he could get a new one up and running by the end of the term.

As March rolled around, the heavily anticipated match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff approached. Both Finn, and Harry, who Malik had been spending much more time with, were nervous and excited.

“How are you feeling Harry?” Malik asked one day as they stood near the entrance hall.

“Frankly, I’m a bit nervous still” Harry responded. “Wood’s keeping me from participating in any scrimmages, to prevent people from seeing me, but honestly that makes it hard to prepare.”

“What do you mean?” asked Malik leadingly.

“I have no one to practice against. I can’t really test myself, and I can’t really work on improving on my mistakes from the last match” Harry shrugged.

“What mistakes? You were fantastic!” Malik laughed.

“Frankly, I got a bit caught up in trying to outfly the Slytherin seeker, rather than just looking for the snitch” Harry admitted. “He was cutting me off and I was just trying to beat him, I didn’t even care about the snitch. If my broom hadn’t been cursed, who knows if I would have caught the snitch. The thing flew right up to me, after all.”

“You’re worried about nothing Harry” Malik said with a dismissive wave. “You would have caught it anyway. You have to remember, you’re the youngest member of the Gryffindor team in a century. You’re there for a reason: you’re very very good!”

“Thanks Malik” Harry said, grinning a little.

Harry had good reason to be nervous, both teams needed the win badly if they wanted to move into first place. The entire school was getting into the action, by wearing the colors of the house they were supporting and with large bets being placed on Gryffindor to win the match. People just couldn’t get over the way Harry had caught the snitch his first match.

At breakfast, on the day of the match, Malik gave Finn his final instructions.

“Win by as much as possible. Run up the score if you can, we want you to blow them out completely.”

“With pleasure” grinned Finn.

“Also, tell Zara Harry gets a bit uncomfortable when he is marked tight. If she keeps cutting him off, he’ll get frustrated and start trying to just beat her instead of looking for the snitch” Malik divulged.

“Will do” Finn said as he departed for the pitch.

With that, everyone headed to the stands to watch the match. Malik sat next to Wayne, who had a little notebook out and was taking notes on different aspects of each broom. Down in the changing room, Finn sat with the rest of the team listening to Gladys.

“Alright people, this could very well be the match that decides the Cup. The winner here determines their own destiny. The loser is gonna have to get some help for them to win the cup. We gotta have this one” She said in a fiery tone. “Gryffindor is nothing to laugh at, they’re solid at every position, and Potter just might be the best player in the school. But they aren’t a great team. They are a collection of talented parts that don’t work well together. All we have to do is play our style, and we should tear them apart” she finished. “Now let’s get out there and beat em into the ground.”

With that she marched out onto the field. As they walked out Finn pulled Zara aside.

“Hey, try marking Potter tightly. He’ll stop looking for the snitch if you can get him frustrated enough.”

“Good to know” she winked.

At the blast of the whistle, everyone kicked off the ground and the match began. Within the first few minutes, Finn realized Gladys had been right. The Gryffindor team was talented, but they didn’t know how to play off each other. When one of their chasers dived, the others didn’t maintain the proper distance and angle for a passing lane and the Quaffle was quickly retaken by Hufflepuff. Seeing this, the Hufflepuffs went to work breaking them down. Thirty minutes into the match, which for some reason was being refereed by Snape, the score was one hundred and fifty to zero in favor of the Hufflepuffs. Up high, Harry was having trouble focusing on the match. Zara, following Finn’s advice to her, continued to cut him off at every turn. Harry was getting frustrated. He knew he needed to catch the snitch now otherwise the game would be out of reach. There was no question about it, the Hufflepuff chasers were just too good, and he was their only chance at salvaging the match. But he just couldn’t get around Zara. Every time he tried to turn; she was there with a little smirk. When he finally managed to get around her, she shot off in the opposite direction.

Turning, he spotted the snitch, and her streaking towards it. Harry accelerated as fast as he could go, but ultimately, Zara’s head start proved to be too great to overcome. She caught the snitch to end the match at three hundred to zero, the worst defeat in nearly a hundred years for Gryffindor.

“Nice game Potter” Zara said with a smirk.

“You too. You don’t by any chance know Malik, do you?” Harry asked.

“I do. Why?” asked Zara, suddenly curious.

“That motherfucker!” Harry growled. “Oh, I should’ve known he’d do whatever he could to help you guys win. He’s the only one who knew I struggled with being cut off.”

“Well, I’d work on that if I was you. The whole school’s seen it now” Zara laughed.

“Yeah, I guess they did” Harry grumbled as he walked away.

As he walked back up to the Gryffindor common room, he heard a voice coming from behind a closed classroom door. He stopped and listened as he heard Professor Quirrell’s stuttering voice.

“P-p-please I d-d-don’t want…” he stuttered. “O-okay I’ll f-f-find it...”

Harry had to run as he heard footsteps. He immediately ran back up to the common room and found Ron and Hermione.

“I think Snape is after Quirrell!” he exclaimed.

“What are you talking about?” asked Hermione.

“I just heard someone threatening Quirrell in a classroom. It has to be Snape, and it has to be about the stone!” Harry continued excitedly.

“Are you saying that Quirrell is one of the things standing between Snape and the stone?” asked Ron.

“I think so.”

“Then it’s as good as gone” Ron declared.

“Now hold on a moment” Hermione interjected. “Did you actually hear Snape saying anything to Quirrell Harry?”

“Well, no” Harry said. “But we’ve already seen him threaten Quirrell this year. Who else could it be?”

“I’m just saying you should be careful with tossing these accusations around Harry. While you may not like him and he may treat you unfairly, that doesn’t mean he is evil and trying to steal the stone. He’s still a teacher!”

“Hermione, he’s pretty evil” Ron said. “And even you can’t possibly like him.”

“I don’t, but I still don’t think Dumbledore would be letting him teach here if he didn’t trust him.”

“Maybe he fooled Dumbledore” Ron said.

“I think we need to keep a closer eye on him” Harry said.

“We can do that Harry, please just don’t accuse him or confront him about it” Hermione pleaded.

“Fine” sighed Harry. “But I won’t let him steal the stone.”


End file.
